Is it November yet?

CATO@LIBERTY:"New York Times Seeks Higher Taxes on the ‘Rich’ as Prelude to Higher Taxes on the Middle Class"

Noteworthy:

"Most advocates of big government understand that it will be impossible to turn America into a European-style welfare state without a value-added tax, but they don’t want to publicly associate themselves with that view until the political environment is more conducive to success. Most important, they realize that it will be very difficult to impose a VAT without seducing some gullible Republicans into giving them political cover. And one way of getting GOPers to sign up for a VAT is by convincing them that they have to choose a VAT if they don’t want a return to the confiscatory 70 percent tax rates of the 1960s and 1970s. Any moves in that direction, such as raising the top tax rate from 35 percent to 39.6 percent next January, are part of this long-term strategy to pressure Republicans (as well as naive members of the business community) into a VAT trap.

Shifting to other assertions, the editorial claims that 'more revenue will be needed in years to come to keep rebuilding the economy.' That’s obviously a novel assertion, and the editors never bother to explain how and why more tax revenue will lead to a stronger economy. Are the folks at the New York Times not aware that both economic growth and living standards are lower in European nations that have imposed higher tax burdens? Heck, even the Keynesians agree (albeit for flawed reasons) that higher taxes stunt growth.

The editorial also asserts that, 'Since 2002, the federal budget has been chronically short of revenue.' I suppose if revenues are compared to the spending desires of politicians, then tax collections are – and always will be – inadequate. The same is true in Greece, France, and Sweden. It doesn’t matter whether revenues are 20 percent of GDP or 50 percent of GDP. The political class always wants more."

Let's see:

- VAT

- Cap 'n Trade

- Higher health care costs, poorer health care service

- More regulation that generally raises costs across the board in many other areas

- Perpetually high true un- and under-employment

- Continued depressed capital investment

- Recurring creation of new bubble economy sectors

- More and improved corruption to pay for the Agenda (tm)

....and it STILL won't be enough for the providers and enablers of bad government, bad policy, continued malaise.

The truth is that these.....people......have absolutely no intent to stop spending, and have no intent to reduce the deficit. They just want MORE MONEY, MORE SPENDING, MORE AGENDA FULFILLMENT.

Are we not smart enough to put a stranglehold on these problems nationally on November 2nd, to be followed up with other action to cure the cancer that's growing?