Democrat spending habits

The editorial staff of the Washington Examiner laid out for us the Democrat plans for clandestine tax hikes during their anticipated tenure over the next six years;

The more we learn about the 2008 budget being crafted by Democratic leaders in the Senate and House, the more expensive it gets. Last week we observed that the only way Democrats could match their draft 2008 budget’s assumption on tax revenues was to let the Bush tax cuts expire as scheduled in 2010. Doing so would result in “the biggest tax increase in American history,” we said.

Coincidently, the Washington Times’ Sean Lengell reports that the Congressional agency that tracked Republican budget excesses since 1995, has ceased that portion of it’s operations – since February;

  “To me, something doesn’t smell right,” said Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican. “I just hope no one is pressuring” the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
    While not blaming the Democratic leadership, Mr. DeMint added: “I guess if you’re looking for a motive, you’d have to look in that direction.”
    CRS, a nonpartisan agency of the Library of Congress created to conduct research for members of Congress on legislative issues, changed its policy in February — a month after Democrats took control of the Congress and vowed to curb the number of special-interest projects inserted into spending bills or even reports that don’t require a vote.
    CRS Director Daniel P. Mulhollan developed the policy after consulting with “internal CRS appropriations experts” and deciding the service was redundant with what other agencies do, CRS spokeswoman Janine D’Addario said.
    “His decision was strictly an internal decision,” said Miss D’Addario, whose agency began providing Congress members with information on earmarks in 1994, when Mr. Mulhollan took over as director.

Funny how the Democrats plan to be “fiscally responsible”, their mantra for every election since 1996, without oversight and by jacking up our taxes. The Examiner explains the Democrats’ plan;

[Center for Budget and Policy Priorities] issued a carefully worded statement denying that the Democrats’ budget plan amounted to a tax hike: It “simply assumes the same level of revenues over the 2007-2012 period as projected by the Congressional Budget Office under its current-policy baseline, which essentially assumes no change in current laws governing taxes.” Current law specifies the 2010 expiration date, when the levies will return to their previous, higher rates. As Senate Budget Committee Chairman Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., has said, “a tax increase to me is when you increase the taxes that people are paying now.”

The Heritage Foundation’s Brian Riedl notes that allowing the Bush cuts to expire as scheduled will mean approximately $900 billion in higher assessments over five years and nearly $3.3 trillion more in 10 years. That’s nearly $2,700 per household. The final amount depends upon whether the Alternative Minimum Tax is changed and if Democrats opt to extend some of the Bush tax cuts for some taxpayers. As we said last week, Democrats ought to be upfront about this enormous tax hike.

Since revenues are at their highest levels ever, why would the Democrats want to increase taxes? Well since there’s no public oversight anymore, they can just start their vote-buying where they left off in 1993. From the WashTimes;

 When Democrats took control of the 110th Congress in January, they promised to limit the long-standing and bipartisan practice of slipping pork spending into bills. But when the House last week passed a $124 billion emergency war-funding provision, the bill included as much as $20 billion in nonmilitary and pork-barrel spending, a move widely criticized by Republicans, including President Bush. 

Now, I watched Larry Kudlow’s show Tuesday night and Larry had Xavier Becerra (D-CA), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee (ya know- the guys that write tax policy) and Assistant to the Speaker (Blinky the Botox Queen). Becerra absolutely denied that there would be tax hikes in this budget. Wish I had video to prove it, but, obviously, he lied – Democrats really are sneaking around behind our backs on this one.

The Examiner’s editorial staff asks;

As we’ve asked before and will no doubt ask again, why can’t Washington politicians just tell us the truth?

Do they really expect an answer?

Category: Politics