IBD: We’d guess Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana sums up the Beltway wisdom when he says that tension across party lines makes it tough to rein in the debt and deficits. “Democrats want to spend more than we can afford,” he said. “Republicans want to cut more taxes than we can afford.”
And since politicians don’t cut programs, especially their own pet ones, tax hikes are inevitable.
And these could be on the backs of the Health Reform Taxes and potentially Cap & Trade taxes.
Cap & Trade is looking doubtful, but not impossible, as the Copenhagen Summit collapsed under it’s own weight late in the week.
They created enough of their own self-obsessed “carbon footprints” to choke a few African nations and came away with nothing really.
Anyone ever heard of Net Meeting?
John Sauven, Greenpeace UK’s executive director, said: “There are no targets for carbon cuts and no agreement on a legally binding treaty. It seems there are too few politicians in this world capable of looking beyond the horizon of their own narrow self-interest.” (examiner)
No truer statement, especially these day.
And especially when it comes to Democrats, Republicans, and the spoilers, Independents like me.
And Partisanship has hardened more and more in the last 10 years.
WSJ: Last year, for example, Democrats voted with the majority of their caucus 92% of the time in the House and 87% of the time in the Senate. Republicans voted with the majority of their caucus 87% of the time in the House and 83% of the time in the Senate. In other words, in only a small percentage of cases do either Democrats or Republicans buck the party line. That’s a picture of lockstep partisan voting, and it has been that way since the late 1990s.
So the Democrats, who have a majority, want to spend like it doesn’t matter on The Agenda. And the minority wants to cut taxes to stimulate the economy. But to Democrats the phrase “tax cut” is an evil 4-letter word…
You have a real mess.
So when this President foolishly or naive promised a post-partisan atmosphere he was obviously either disingenuous or permanently on Nitrous Oxide.
Making any meaningful reductions very hard indeed.
It hasn’t always been this way. Look back 40 years, and Washington behaved in a quite different manner, with Democrats and Republicans both showing far more willingness to break ranks and reach across the aisle to the other side. In 1969, for example, House Democrats voted with their party’s majority just 61% of the time and House Republicans just 62% of the time. In other words, lockstep voting was roughly a third less prevalent than it is today.
If it had been as strident then as it is now the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960’s would never have happened.
GOP Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, who with Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota came up with the idea for the panel (8 Republicans, 8 Democrats 2 Obama Admins to try and work out a deal), sees the parties in conflict joining hands and jumping “off a cliff together.” As inspiring as that would be for many voters weary of Washington’s insatiable appetite for other people’s money, it’s not likely to turn out that way.
Likelier, those who recommend spending cuts will be pushed off the cliff and unable to oppose tax hikes.
Which brings us back to Bayh’s comment that “Republicans want to cut more taxes than we can afford.” It’s tax hikes, not cuts, that we can’t afford. We can’t even afford the taxes being imposed now.
Research has found that economic growth is maximized when combined federal, state and local taxes are 23% of the gross domestic product. The combined rate today is close to 30%.
America is the economic engine that moves the world. If the task force recommends tax hikes, and the Democratic Congress passes them and the president signs them into law, the shock will be felt here and abroad.
But if the panel does an honest analysis, it will find Washington has spending issues, not a revenue problem.
But like any drug addict they have to admit they have a problem first.
And I don’t see the Democrats doing that, even in an off year re-election cycle.
Example: The culmination of years of runaway socialism has left the Greek public resentful, bitter and unwilling to pay taxes. “Why should I pay?” a Greek citizen told the New York Times. “I don’t care about my government, I don’t care about my country.”
Let the rich pay them. Let the “greedy” corporations pay them.
Their country’s bond rating was just lowered, making their money worth less and borrowing more expensive.
Our Future or our Present?
It’s all about Me.
What’s in it for Me.
Screw you.
It’s all about The Party.
It’s all about The Agenda.
The Politicians and their divide on one side.
The People on the other.
So you have a divide within a divide.
Fifty-seven percent (57%) of voters nationwide say that it would be better to pass no health care reform bill this year instead of passing the plan currently being considered by Congress. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 34% think that passing that bill would be better.
However, 70% of liberal voters nationwide say it would be better to pass the legislation rather than passing nothing at all. Most moderates (54%) and conservatives (80%) hold the opposite view.
Compared to the average government worker, most Americans think they work harder, have less job security and make less money.
In fact, 59% of Americans say the average government worker earns more annually than the average taxpayer, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Among those who have close friends or relatives who work for the government, the belief is even stronger: 61% say the average government worker earns more than the average taxpayer.
Feeding that belief is the finding that 51% of all adults think government workers are paid too much. Only 10% say they are paid too little, while 27% say their pay is about right.
And they have FEHBP, the platinium standard for perfect health care.
So the partisan divide widens.
And with Mainstream Media very much partisan, you can’t even get the news without the spin cycle, just pries the wedge open farther. After all, conflict is good for the new business and pushing The Agenda is their partisan need.
The War on FOX by the White House and the Mainstream Media earlier this year should give us a good clue there.
Why they heck would they want to cover the news “objectively”? That’s so old fashion and not “crusading” enough for your average “journalist” today.
There’s nothing in it for them to just report the news.
That’s boring.
Especially, if THEY disagree with it.
Cynic: a person who believes that only selfishness motivates human actions.
“a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.” –Ambrose Bierce
Yep, that’s me.
And from the evidence, is that so wrong….
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