Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Editorial: Soaking the middle class
Having doubled the federal budget deficit in just six months in office, the Obama administration now says that the expanding deficit threatens the nation's fragile economic recovery and will require sacrifice to contain.
Sacrifice in the form of middle-class tax hikes, according to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Chief Economic Adviser Larry Summers.
Voters who swallowed candidate Barack Obama's oft-repeated pledge not to increase taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year may be surprised to hear this warning. But they shouldn't be.
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Politicians are notorious for breaking no-new-taxes pledges. Had they only done the math, voters would have realized that Obama couldn't deliver on his sweeping expansion of government by cutting out waste and soaking the rich, as he promised. The president gave up early trying to find big money from trimming government fat, coming up with less than a half-percent of savings in his first budget. And there's only so much he can squeeze out of the wealthy.
The middle class is where the money is, and that's where the administration will have to go to get the cash to fund its programs.
This would be a good time for those middle-income earners to think about how much they're willing to pay for Obama's ambitions. Congress is on summer vacation, and most members are back in their districts, presumably listening to constituents.
They should be getting an earful from the taxpayers who will be saddled with the $1 trillion to $2 trillion 10-year cost of the administration's health care plan.
With Summers and Geithner already talking about broad tax hikes to cover the deficits the administration has posted so far, voters may want to seriously weigh how much more government they can afford.
Likewise with the carbon cap-and-trade proposal that has already passed the House. It will cost the average household an estimated $3,000 annually in the form of higher prices for goods and services.
Everyone wants a cleaner environment and everyone wants health care reform. But how much of each taxpayers are able to pay for should be a major consideration as these policies are shaped.
This isn't the end of what Obama has on his wish list. He also envisions expanding social spending on everything from college tuition to housing, and can be expected to drive up the deficit further with additional economic stimulus outlays.
It's good that Geithner and Summers have finally dropped the fantasy that the wealthy will pick up the tab for these vast new programs and everyone else will enjoy a free ride. It's not going to happen that way.
Taxpayers should make sure Congress understands their tolerance level for higher tax bills before it resumes debate this fall on massive new spending programs.
And the next time they come across a political candidate who promises them they can have a bright, new world that someone else will pay for, they should be a lot less gullible.
http://detnews.com/article/20090804/OPINION01/908040310/1008/Editorial--Soaking-the-middle-class
Soaking the middle class
Member #: 12394
Registered: 1996-2001
Posted:
1837
Name:
Mark , aka "Texas Toast"
Occupation:
RF & AC 'Cowboy'
Location:
Mid-America
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