"I am shocked, shocked to find out that Democrats want to raise taxes!"
Posted on 10/25/2007 1:26:48 PM PDT by seanmerc
It’s easy to see the disguises that the Democratic Party is planning to don for Halloween.
While we can only speculate on the taxes they are planning to increase — everything would be a safe bet — it is becoming clear how they will dress the tax increases up to make the radical change they will, in fact, represent seem moderate and reasonable, even necessary to protect the “middle class.”
Of course, this will take place not this year but in 2009, after they have elected Hillary as president and as many as 58 Democratic senators (possible takeaways in Minnesota, New Hampshire, Maine, Oregon, Virginia, Nebraska, Colorado and New Mexico).
Put the pieces together: Why are the Democrats adopting a one-year patch for the Alternative Minimum Tax rather than a long-term fix?
And why are liberal leaders like Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., opposing closing the loophole that protects private equity hedge funds? And why is Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., pushing for a broad-based fix closing capital gains treatment for all partnerships, not just for hedge funds, even though he must realize that such broad-based reform can’t pass?
And why did Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other Democratic leaders hail the action of the Budget Committee as representing a tax cut when all it did was to include in its long-range plans the renewal of some, but scarcely all, of the Bush tax cuts that will sunset in the next four years?
The answer is that the party is concocting an elaborate costume with which to disguise its coming mammoth tax increases.
Once the Democrats firmly control both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, they will probably commit themselves to the following:
Raise the top bracket on the income tax back up to 40 percent from its current 35 percent.
Increase the Capital Gains Tax from its current 15 percent to 30 percent or, perhaps, eliminate it entirely and tax these gains as ordinary income (at 40 percent).
Double, triple, or eliminate the ceiling on FICA taxes so that instead of taxing only the first $99,000 of income, the levy covers a much higher portion of earned income.
Repeal much of the rollback in estate taxes passed by Bush.
The combined effect of these increases will be horrific and will probably trigger a recession. As Election Day 2008 nears, it is easy to anticipate massive sell-offs of stocks and real estate in anticipation of a Democratic increase in capital gains rates.
So, to induce America to swallow their tax poison, the Democrats understand the need to camouflage their intentions and hide them in the rhetoric of middle-class tax cuts.
So here’s what they’ll do. They will bill their tax increases as a middle-class tax cut by including in the calculation the Bush middle-class tax cuts, which they will not permit to sunset, and also by taking credit for a long-term fix of the AMT. Together, the sums “saved” by these “tax cuts” will be gigantic, at least on paper, and will permit them to call their revenue-raising leviathan a tax reduction.
Of course, no actual middle-class human beings will see their taxes cut. The Bush tax cuts will just continue and the theoretical harm of the AMT will be averted.
Then they will repeal the carried interest exemption on all partnerships (real estate and energy as well as private equity) and will hold up the massive and obscene earnings of hedge fund managers and their unjustifiable tax preferences as the poster child for their tax increases. They will feature Blackstone and its billion-dollar executives as the targets of their tax increases.
All of this camouflage will fool enough people to get the votes in a Democratic Congress to pass their tax program. But once the increases start being felt on tax day, it will be a different story. But, by then, it will be too late.
Halloween will be every day.
Given the track record, I think he just guaranteed a Republican President and gains in the Senate.
Democrats just don’t care what they do to the economy...do they?
Idiots all!
In other news, the sky is blue and water is wet...........film at eleven..............
Mondale 2008!
Seriously, if the dems get control of the executive and both houses, I’m going to “hunker down” financially.
We’re headed for a severe depression when their fiscal policies take hold. It might not be for 6 years (like for ol’ slick), but it’s coming.
This is not even taking into account the likely economic fallout (pardon the pun) of the next terrorist attack that she’ll let happen.
Nope. With them it's all about power & control.
Ya mean the Dems want to use the abandoned GOP idea of a balanced budget?
Yeah, I figure you could run that headline every day all year long and be right every time.
Gosh what a Scoop.
Democrats plan to raise taxes. I am shocked.
And just how many Senators and Congressmen are rich?
Does anyone think they will really raise their own taxes?
Just like:
Oldest Person in the World Dies.................
Hey dick! are you tapping The greasy headed one’s phone?
Even Dick can figure it out.
The rats claim that the economy is in desperate shape now. They should look at Michigan for a taste of the rat future. California is the next state to taste rat economic utopia.
Yeah, Dick is just adorable, isn't he? Between Gingrich's and his predictions, the average G.O.P.er is just ew-scrayed, eh? One might think so, but...
I figure Dick's predicting such gloom in an effort to fire up conservatives to vote early and often to ensure The Mad Shrieker never sees the Oval Office [again].
Morris has been a poor prognosticator to date.
Side [unrelated] question: If HRC gets elected, is she going to bring back all the White House stuff she took when she left?
Assuming she can be pried out of the WH, which remains questionable.
"I am shocked, shocked to find out that Democrats want to raise taxes!"
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