Tax Pledge Dodgers And Fiscal Cliff Divers
Over the holiday weekend there were a few developments in the much-feared (yet completely-avoidable) approaching fiscal cliff that caught my attention. First, some Republican lawmakers began agreeing to tax increases despite earlier promises not to do so.
I know! I’m just as shocked as you that a politician would break a promise!
Republican Senators Bob Corker (TN), Saxby Chambliss (GA), and Lindsey Graham (SC) say they’ll consider breaking the infamous “no tax pledge” from Americans for Tax Reform’s Grover Norquist. New York’s Rep. Peter King is with them, too:
“I agree entirely with Saxby Chambliss. A pledge you signed 20 years ago, 18 years ago, is for that Congress,” King said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He continued: “For instance, if I were in Congress in 1941, I would have signed a declaration of war against Japan. I’m not going to attack Japan today. The world has changed, and the economic situation is different.”
Next, the beneficiaries of government largesse began screaming about how they cannot possibly survive with a single cut to their respective budgets.
Defense companies, health care providers, public broadcasting and even national parks enthusiasts are warning that cuts to their interests would cost jobs and hurt consumers. Some say that all entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security should be off-limits. So, too, should be federal aid to education. And tax breaks for contributions to charity. Others say the wealthy should shoulder the burden.
Several unions, including the Service Employees International Union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the National Education Association, launched an advertising campaign Tuesday in five states – Alaska, Colorado, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Virginia – urging tax increases on higher incomes. AARP, the massive group of older Americans, is planning a “Lobby Day” next month. And others are mobilizing.
Many of these same people are demanding a “balanced approach” to solving the most-predictable crisis in our history. They demand more taxes on rich people while demanding their preferred program or service be spared any cuts. How’s that for balance?
Of course, it’s not about balance at all. It’s what Ayn Rand called a “mixed economy” based on the Politics of Pull – or how much influence one has in government.
A mixed economy is rule by pressure groups. It is an amoral, institutionalized civil war of special interests and lobbies, all fighting to seize a momentary control of the legislative machinery, to extort some special privilege at one another’s expense by an act of government—i.e., by force.
Then there are the “Cliff Divers“: A growing bloc of emboldened liberals says they’re not afraid to watch defense spending get gouged and taxes go up on every American if a budget deal doesn’t satisfy their priorities.
But taxing the rich and cutting defense spending will not close the annual trillion-dollar deficits. No matter to the Cliff Divers. As long as the rich get soaked and the Pentagon gets its comeuppance, they’ll be satisfied whistling past the economic graveyard.
And with Pew polling showing Americans are already predisposed to believe that the GOP will take the blame for any fiscal calamity, it’s obvious the Republicans are in no position to block tax hikes or win badly-needed entitlement reform.
At the heart of the debate is whether Americans are willing to make short-term sacrifices in order to avoid economic collapse and save the system?
So far, it appears not.
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Pete Kaliner hosts the 3-6 p.m. drive-time slot on Asheville’s WWNC Radio. Visit his blog and listen live.
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