Posted on 07/11/2010 4:04:04 PM PDT by blam
Japan Just Showed Why U.S. Democrats Will Be Doomed If They Try To Raise Taxes
Vincent Fernando, CFA
Jul. 11, 2010, 11:53 AM
Japan's incumbent political party suffered a massive defeat at the polls this Sunday, as upper house elections left the Democratic Party of Japan with just 47 seats.
The result was far short of prime minister Naoto Kan's 54-seat goal, though the DPJ should still retain power due to their majority in the lower house.
So what's being blamed for their defeat this Sunday? Trying to raise taxes:
Reuters:
"Kan lost the election calling for a sales tax hike," said Koichi Haji, chief economist at NLI Research Institute.
"That is a huge setback for fiscal reform. Now the question is whether Kan can stay in power or not."
The Democrats swept to power last year promising to cut waste and focus spending on consumers to boost growth. Public backing nosedived due to indecisive leadership and while government ratings rose when Kan took over last month, they slipped after he floated a rise in the 5 percent sales tax to help rein in debt.
PM VULNERABLE
A poor election outcome leaves Kan vulnerable to a challenge from party powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa -- a critic of his sales tax hike proposal -- ahead of a September party leadership vote. Few, though, would expect Kan to go without a fight.
Without a coalition majority, the Democrats will need to seek new allies, hampering their push for fiscal reform including a possible sales tax hike.
This is an example of how voters can initially decry budget deficits, but then punish the party who tries to raise taxes as a solution, even the party they once showed overwhelming support for.
[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
This was an ill-considered article. The Democrats have already decided to raise taxes, by letting the Bush tax cuts lapse—after the election.
So if the election is a Republican sweep, the big question is “Will the Republican congress vote to restore the tax cuts?”
The follow up question is, “If the Republicans do this, will Obama veto the restored tax cuts?”
If he does, it’s highly unlikely that the new congress will override his veto, because it will be over another year before they have to face the voters again.
This means that the last question, is “Who will the taxpayers blame for higher taxes?”
Only those that pay taxes will get upset.
And rightly so. Anyone with a bit of common sense knows that raising taxes in a time of budget deficits and economic weakness is a recipe for declining revenue. Why the political class can't seem to understand this is anyone's guess.
“This election is lost”” Dingy
Taxes are going up automatically after the first of the year, and no one votes on it, so what’s the point?
this
and that number is far too small.
Mmph....
Disagree.
The sales tax was ONE issue, but more importantly in my opinion, was the Japanese public’s desire to punish the DPJ.
There are several reasons for that desire.
First and foremost, however, was former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s failure to divorce himself from DPJ Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa, who despite numerous financial scandals, refused to step down and thus made the DPJ appear just as corrupt and tainted as the LDP — in addition to being incompetent.
The second most important issue was the Futemna controversy. Futemna was Hatoyama’s “Gitmo”. A throwaway promise made during a campaign on an issue that he had not seriously researched and thus thought he could solve with the stroke of a pen.
When that, and numerous other promises, proved impossible to fulfill, despite majorities in both houses, the Japanese public reactions went from shock to anger, to exasperation, to wry amusement at their own foolishness for ever believing that the DPJ was in any way different than the LDP.
Having said all that, do not count Naoto Kan out yet. He does not quite have the charisma of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, but he has reacted quite strongly to slap Ozawa down to size and he does have a pretty clean reputation both as a reformer and as a realist.
Providing he is willing to work with the LDP, something that Hatoyama never bothered to try, he might get some thing accomplished. For all their faults, the LDP knows how to work the actual levers of government and the DPJ has proven abundantly that they don’t.
As for the sales tax... everyone knows it’s going to go up sooner or later... they don’t like it much, but they can do the math. The deficit has to be cut somehow, and Japanese social spending enjoys wide-based support because of the nature of Japan’s homogeneous society.
Bottom line, this article is a piece of superficial crap.
“This was an ill-considered article. The Democrats have already decided to raise taxes, by letting the Bush tax cuts lapse—after the election.”
Actually, much more than that. The so-called Deficit Reduction Task Force is due to report, just after the election and they WILL force through new things like a VAT, end of Social Security Earnings Cap, probably a mileage (i.e., driving) tax, and just about anything else they can think of to make us a World-Class Country.
The Dems will vote for the whole package, since it will be all or nothing and they will want to leave the country with a going-away present.
Fear the Voter!
This was an ill-considered article. The Democrats have already decided to raise taxes, by letting the Bush tax cuts lapse—after the election.”
What has been truly evil has been the campaign of lies the Democrats and willing media accomplices have engaged in to distort what is really going on in taxes.
It’s been a failure of the Republicans to not pound on these 3 issues - jobs, taxes and fiscal responsibility. The Democrats have struck out on all 3.
I’ve even had self-described liberals admit that raising taxes in a recession is stupid and counter-productive. If the democrats let the Bush tax cuts expire, even liberals will question their sanity.
Few Democrats have a taste for the total wipeout that will ensue in 2012 if they don't.
Actually, the wipeout may occur in 2011!
The Democrats will NOT raise taxes between now and the November elections. With a few exceptions their campaigns have for decades been based on running as a moderate then voting liberal until shortly before the election when they slide back into their fake image of the patriotic moderate.
That’s the key. But of course it is the Democrats who refused to continue them, therefore, they are in fact responsible for the upcoming tax increases. Now getting the general public to acknowledge that is way more difficult than it should be.
>>Only those that pay taxes will get upset.
See my tagline.
They don’t care if they lose—they got 0bamaCare (which is guaranteed to usher in single payer and rot the hearts, minds and culture of the US.)
If your shiny new conservatives don’t repeal 0bamaCare, and undo the massive damage that has been perpetrated on this country, then a November victory won’t mean diddly-squat.
You had better vote-in right-wingers and then keep the fire under their britches, or the time-bomb that is 0bamaCare will finish us off—I would bet everything I own on it.
If they manage to foist Cap ‘n Tax on us, which is likely, then that will have to be undone as well, or we will fall just the same.
The primary people the Bush tax cuts expiring will affect are higher income earners. They will know exactly who to blame.
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