Wednesday, August 01, 2012

More voters reject tax increases

Yesterday I heard an NPR story that gleefully (in their calm monotone, of course) talked about how the push for higher taxes in Atlanta was bipartisan. They seemed pleased that some Republicans in Atlanta were in favor of higher taxes for road projects.

Today voters rejected the tax increase, which made me think about two things that seem to be absolute:

1. The Left (Democrats, liberals, socialists, communists) ALWAYS want to raise taxes.

2. Voters consistently vote against tax increases when given the opportunity to do so directly.

Following those two points, I have two more:

1. Most voters fail to understand that Democrats ALWAYS wants higher taxes, because Dem politicians win elections consistently. Only the media can be blamed for this disconnect.

2. Voters reject tax increases because they understand what's happening in America: Government is a bad steward of our money.

The reasons our cities and states, and the federal layer, are bankrupt is less because of a reduction in tax revenue, and more because our governments have been mismanaging our interests for decades. The federal layer is the most obvious, with a 33% increase in national debt in just three years under Obama, and a reduction of our credit rating from AAA to AA. But the problem isn't limited to federal mismanagement. Cities in California are filing bankruptcy on a weekly basis, and there are thousands more cities across the country that should file, but, out of shame, haven't yet done so.

The best case scenario is that cities made long-range spending plans based on an economic boom that could not have been anything but temporary. And, with this best case scenario, we saw crippling fiscal mismanagement. All governments, just like families, individuals, and corporations, need to operate with a budget surplus in order to save money for a rainy day. This is incredibly obvious to anyone with an IQ above 75, but somehow we have "leaders" who reject the very concept.

Today's success in Atlanta doesn't mean what the Left says it means: the roadways in Atlanta will be forever congested because The People won't be reasonable. It means, rather, that The People expect government to solve problems with the available funds.

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