The Senate Budget: A $2641 Per Household Tax Increase and No Entitlement Reforms

Heritage Foundation ^ | March 22, '07 | Brian M. Riedl

[T.L.Sink]

The Senate Democrats, writing their first budget resolution since winning control of Congress last fall, have produced a budget blueprint that:

. Raises taxes by $900 billion over five years and a projected $3.3 trillion over ten years;

. Translates into a tax increase of $2641 per household annually over the next decade;

. Includes 22 reserve funds that could be used to raise taxes by hundreds of billions more;

. Increases discretionary spending by nearly 9 percent in FY 2008 and does not terminate a SINGLE program;

. Completely ignores the impending tsunami of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid costs; and,

. Employs the same gimmicks that Congress criticized the President for using in his budget proposals.

That's just the five year total. Projected over the ten year period, the expiration (or required offset) of all existing tax cuts would raise projected revenues by $3,268 billion -- easily THE LARGEST PEACETIME TAX INCREASE IN AMERICAN HISTORY.

[T.L.Sink]

Think back before the recent election. Remember the mantra about the "culture of corruption"? And then Pelosi championed John "Abscam" Murtha and William "cash in the freezer" Jefferson? And the crock about a balanced budget? And no earmarks or pork? Well, while Pelosi is conducting her own foreign policy with the terrorist state of Syria, her budget has $23 billion in pork intended to bribe her party members to support the pending Iraq Surrender policy. And they did!

[Still Thinking]

I hope GW can find his veto pen and retrieve his stones from wherever he keeps them.

[JennysCool]

Thanks again, “protest voters.”

[KevinDavis]

Explain to me why losing this election was good????

[TheDon]

Under this plan, tax revenues will decrease as the economy is driven into the tank by the gov’t worshippers.

[The Pack Knight]

I hate to say it, but we had our chance, and we blew it. Now we're going to have a hard time arguing Republicans will actually be fiscally responsible if the voters put them back in power, since anyone can just say "Why didn't you do it two years ago?"

Sadly, it doesn't look like the GOP has learned its lesson from 2006. The voters don't want Republicans who spend like Democrats. If the leadership doesn't get their collective heads out of their collective recta and run on a national reform platform rather than try the "local issues" nonsense like '06, it may not matter if we get a Republican President in '08.

[mdwakeup]

The budget resolution is not a law, and therefore the President is not involved. He can neither approve it nor veto it.

[JennysCool]

Beats me.

[EagleUSA]

Thanks again, “protest voters.”

---

Yes, the stupidity of the voting public has done a number on us. We did not expect anything less than Marxist tax increases from a bunch of socialists -— a country GETS THE GOVERNMENT THEY DESERVE.

[mimaw]

Ditto to that. Looks like some will do it again in 2008.

[RC2]

People need to recall these idiots. They forget.....it’s our money and if this country came together, we can get rid of the bunch of them. Don’t wait to vote them out, recall them.....state by state.

[The Pack Knight]

Explain to me why losing this election was good????

You're right, losing the election was terrible, and the protest voters are reaping what they've sewn. However, the Republican caucus has no one to blame but themselves for what happened. If they'd simply governed like they were sent to Washington to do in 1994, there wouldn't have BEEN any protest voters. Instead, they thought they could ride the war and social issues forever and just conduct business as usual. Republicans gave the voters no good reason to vote for them, and thus should not have been surprised at the results.

[T.L.Sink]

I think you’ve made a good point. But my hope is that the conservatives will gain control and return the party to our core principles. I think just about everybody is disgusted with the RINO choices between “tweedle-dum” and “tweeedle-dee”. Let’s hope we’ve learned something from the recent mid-term election!

[JennysCool]

Instead, they have learned a hard — but pitifully obvious lesson: ANY Republican is better than ANY Democrat/Socialist.

Even a bad Republican can usually be reasoned with (with the possible exception of Specter). NO Dem/Soc listens to reason. Tax hikes and Nancy in Syria are just the beginning.

[lilylangtree]

Sickening.

[Marysecretary]

I hate these people.

[this_ol_patriot]

Translates into a tax increase of $2641 per household annually...

Another month of work down the drain. Can't I just send them a bag of my blood, I have plenty of that.

[rockrr]

Yay! Here comes the recession! Thank you Dhimmis!

heavy sarc/

[CGTRWK]

People need to recall these idiots. They forget.....it’s our money and if this country came together, we can get rid of the bunch of them.

There are about 24 million people directly employed by federal, state, and local government - one sixth of the entire labor force. As many again are employed in putatively private enterprise that is dependent on government contracts. Two trillion dollars a year go out subsidizing even more people who aren't even working.

Democracy is demographics. People on the dole will always vote to continue taking our money because that money is their livelyhood. Once a critical mass of tax recipients exists, it is democratically self perpetuating. We have achieved that mass and smaller, less parasitic government is no longer electable. The only thing that is to be decided is which recipient blocks will grow the fastest this year.

[rabscuttle385]

The only thing that is to be decided is which recipient blocks will grow the fastest this year.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but that sort of trend doesn't appear to be sustainable for long though unless the currency is devalued or the population increases at a rate equal to or greater than the growth of the recipient pools (cue to illegal immigration?).