Happy Halloween Everyone! But, beware, the quadruple witching hour of Democratic tax increases is fast approaching.
Unless you've been living under a rock lately (or getting your news only from Ellen's Blog), you know by now that a year after being elected into office, Democrats at virtually every level of government are poised to tax you and me practically into bankruptcy.
Here's a sampling of the new taxes proposed by Democrats at the state, county, City of Chicago, and national level:
Chicago Democratic Tax Increases: $292 million
1. 15% property tax increase
2. Higher water taxes
3. Higher sewer taxes
4. Higher phone taxes
5. Higher beer taxes
6. Higher wine taxes
7. Higher liquor taxes
8. Higher leased car taxes
9. Higher office equipment taxes
10. Higher parking taxes
11. New 15 cent per square foot tax on new office space
12. New $120 annual tax on SUVs
13. New 10 cent tax on bottled water
Collar County Democratic Tax Increases: $158 million
14. Increased Cook and Lake county sales tax
(This is to bail out the CTA which the Illinois Inspector General reported has a 46% absentee rate and several floors of its headquarters have been unoccupied for years).
Cook County Democratic Tax Increases: $888 million
15. Triple sales taxes
16. Double gas taxes
17. Double parking taxes
(This is to hire 1,100 new employees, including patronage jobs)
State of Illinois Democratic Tax Increases: $7 billion
18. New Gross Receipts Tax (Delayed by the state legislature)
Federal Expected Democratic Tax Increases: Tens of Billions
19. Alternative Minimum Tax: increased from 4 million paying to 23 million
20. Marginal Tax Rate Increase: Current tax relief will expire, raising the rate to 39%
21. Social Security Tax increase: lifting the $94,000 income cap on FICA tax
22. Dingell Carbon Tax: New federal property tax against any home over 3,000 square feet.
Read about it in more detail here.
All I can say is that thank goodness I don't live in the City or in Cook County, and although I work there, I can live without buying bottled water, and they can't tax my SUV (although they can charge me more to park, I suppose). You would think that anyone with any brains would have coordinated to some degree and not tried to sock the taxpayers all at once, at every level of government--even the generally oblivious man/woman in the street will have a hard time ignoring this one. Although I'm generally pretty cynical about the degree to which "normal" people pay attention to these kinds of issues, I've noticed they start paying attention when it hits their pocketbook in a fairly obvious and direct fashion (as opposed to various kinds of "stealth" tax increases, like simply whittling down deductions).
Here's my question: Are people in this state finally waking up to the fact that they are getting the government they voted for, and sadly, deserve?
Actually, that's not my question, because I know the answer to that one.
What I really want to know, is now that the one-party rule of the Democrats at the City, Cook County and State level have us headed for the perfect storm of tax increases, not to mention the federal tax increases proposed by Dem Charlie Rangel, will the voters of this state think twice in the next election before sending the same (or more) Democrats back into office?
Does the Republican party have a chance to capitalize on this, now that the Dems are feeling their oats and have revealed their plan to tax us all back to the stone age? If so, what's the Republican message? Many would say (perhaps rightly) that our credibility as the party of fiscal responsibility has been so damaged as to be irreparable. Discuss.
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9 comments:
each of our feckless future opponents has no doubt done polling on what I hope will be a death match between them. Any guess TA on where numbers between them stand or what their head to heads against Kirk are telling them?
My guess is Kirk is up on Jay 55-25 with the rest undecided and slightly less against Dan. Purely speculative that Dan is also up on Jay based on name id?
I don't know, Anon 9:06, but I will see what my moles can tell me about any internal Seals or Footlik polling results.
Just to get back to tonight's topic (tax increases), I hope someone corners Seals and Footlik (if they ever debate) on whether they support the Rangel tax increases. While Rangel bills this as tax reform, it basically gives 90 million people that pay little or no taxes anyway, a new handout, while soaking it to individuals making 150K or more, or 200K per couple or more (a hell of a marriage penalty, don't you think???).
Given the demographics of large portions of the 10th District, I can't believe this plan will fly in Winnetka, and someone needs to get Seals and Footlik on record about it.
Any complaint of a reversal of tax cuts for the wealthy will furher compartmentalize Republicans as the party of the privileged, and any attempt to curb government spending will show them as hypocrites since they gladly spent us into a large deficit while they were in power.
Sorry, but it happened.
The only hope I see is what Mark Kirk could do as a moderate -- keep working across party lines to curb government waste on the "Bridges to Nowhere," but rebuild the needed infrastructure (e.g., the bridges and roads that are collapsing) and get us responsibly out of Iraq, which is a total drain on our Treasury, military manpower and national spirit.
I think he has the courage and leadership to do it, so I'm expecting it to happen.
To stay in office, he has to appeal to Independents,so it makes sense that he will strategically go that way, since he's not an idiot.
He has no primary to deal with, so he doesn't have to appease his base. He will be spending all his resources and efforts on appealing to moderates and Independents like me, if he wants to continue representing the District.
You have some good points Moder8, but the Rangel tax plan is not simply a reversal of the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003. It adds a 4% income tax surcharge on married taxpayers with incomes of at least $200,000 and 4.6% on marrieds with at least $500,000 in income. It also reduces itemized and personal deductions that many Americans claim.
As a result, as reported by the Wall Street Journal this past Monday, this would have a combined result of raising America's top tax rate from the current 35% to a top rate of 44%- that's a 25% tax hike, if you do the math.
I have to believe that the people of the 10th Dist., many of whom will feel the direct bite of this tax increase, will come down on the side of those that oppose it. And even if you do not directly feel the bite, this kind of tax increase is going to impact many entreprenurs and company owners, who employ a lot of the rest of us. It's a popular Dem fallicy that you can "soak the rich" or hit companies that "don't pay their fair share" but not have any drag on the rest of the economy.
Let's see how Seals and Footlik weasel out of taking a position one way or the other. It's gonna take some pretty fancy footwork.
Moder8 makes a good point. Republicans need to tread carefully. The huge deficit was created on your watch. And moderate dems and independents think that there are social programs the feds should fund - SCHIP being the most public right now. Cutting taxes for the wealthy while refusing to fund SCHIP isn't gonna fly with folks like me.
At the same time, any Illinois Dem connected with state government is fair game for the unholy mess in springfield. We finally get the state and they give us higher taxes, gridlocked do-nothing government, and elected officials more concerned with ego and power plays, than doing the people's business. I'm guessing I'm not the only Illinois dem feeling betrayed by the whole bunch of 'em. If the election were held today the only dem I'd vote for would be Ms. Clinton.
Neither one will package it as a tax increase, but as a reversal of tax cuts for the rich, all of which Kirk voted for, unfortunately.
And that's how most Independents will see it, in my opinion.
Kirk will have to find a middle ground to balance this one.
A few truths on the deficit:
Tax rate reductions increase tax revenues. This truth has been proved at both state and federal levels, including by President Bush's 2003 tax cuts on income, capital gains and dividends. Those reductions have raised federal tax receipts by $785 billion, the largest four-year revenue increase in U.S. history. In fiscal 2007, which ended last month, the government took in 6.7% more tax revenues than in 2006.
These increases in tax revenue have substantially reduced the federal budget deficits. In 2004 the deficit was $413 billion, or 3.5% of gross domestic product. It narrowed to $318 billion in 2005, $248 billion in 2006 and $163 billion in 2007. That last figure is just 1.2% of GDP, which is half of the average of the past 50 years.
Lower tax rates have be so successful in spurring growth that the percentage of federal income taxes paid by the very wealthy has increased.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pdupont/?id=110010798
Hi Anne! Glad you found my blog!
Backyard Conservative rocks!!!
Your command and anaylsis of the data makes you the anti-Ellen, not me.
Keep it up!
Thanks! We're a team!:)
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