Does the Democratic party ever learn? That is one of the questions I'm pondering now that I've just read an AP report that Democrats in the House just passed a bill that would "raise taxes for millions of Americans by $683 billion over the next five years. It would also give generous increases to domestic programs."Likewise, "The Democratic-written plan would bring the federal budget back into the black by letting all of President Bush's tax cuts expire at the end of 2010." Basically, that would result in the biggest tax increase in American history.
A tax increase is exactly what we don't need right now, especially with 40 percent of economists in the U.S. predicting that we either are in already or are headed into a recession. History has proven again and again that raising taxes only prolongs recessions, and cutting taxes is the way to get out of them.
Warren G. Harding, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush proved this when they raised taxes to jump start faltering economies that they inherited, and each time the tax cuts sent the economy into a boom.
And Herbert Hoover raised taxes which helped send the recession he inherited into a depression, and FDR raised taxes that made sure the depression would last a long time. I know he thought he was doing a good thing, but by taking more money out of the pockets of people who already don't have any, you are hurting the economy.
No matter how messed up the republican party is, this is one of the main reasons I simply cannot align myself with the democratic party. They just don't get it. They fail to learn from history.
The Senate on the other hand passed some of Bush's tax cut proposals. That's a step in the right direction, but it may not be enough to save us.
The tax refunds are a nice gesture, and I will wisely use this money, but this, in my opinion, will not prevent a recession. Oh, I suppose it might, but the best way to stymie a recession is to cut taxes and decrease domestic spending, not increase it. Americans can barely pay their bills as it is, can you imagine if they had less money to play with.
They will say we need to do this to help the poor, to help those who have lost their jobs, to help those who have lost their houses. I feel for those people, but why throw all the rest of us hard working Americans into poverty too.
You want to raise taxes on the rich? The rich aren't stupid. When you raise their taxes, when you raise the taxes of the upper middle class, they are going to hoard their money, stop spending, stop investing, and businesses will suffer as a result.
The rich and the upper middle class create 80% of the jobs in our market. It's not going to be a pretty picture when they stop hiring new workers because they are in a hoarding mode. And, with fewer people working, that means less money for the government, even thought those who do work have to pay more.
We will all suffer. What we need to do is cut taxes, allow people and businesses to keep more of their well earned money, encourage them to spend and invest and create more jobs. While we might make less money in the short term, in the long term we will have more tax payers, and thus more money.
We aren't going to get out of debt by spending and taxing.
This is no different than the way we run our finances at our homes. When we find that we are making less money, or find ourselves in debt, we stop spending. That's not rocket science, it's common sense.
I'm not worried because there's no way any tax hike will ever get by the Presidents desk, but if Hilary or Obama get elected, we could be in for a ride. I'm not making a prediction here. And, if they did raise taxes, I would hope they'd prove me wrong.
More than likely, if we ignore history during these fragile economic times, we could send the greatest economy in the history of the world in the wrong direction, and we will all suffer as a result.
So wise up Democrats.
