Economic Madness Writ Large - The Current Tax Debates

If it weren’t so serious, the implosion of the hard-core left (otherwise known as Obama’s base) would be rather amusing. I’m talking about the debate surrounding the President’s compromise on the extension of the Bush tax cuts. It seems that a deal has been reached that has managed to piss off just about everyone.

Everyone in Washington, that is.

The interesting part is, the issue that has their knickers in a twist is exactly what should have happened two years ago. Our corporate tax rates are the highest among developed nations, and this is greatly harming our ability to compete in the global marketplace. There is an economic axiom, known by all except those inside the Washington Beltway who craft our economic policies, that if you want less of something, tax it heavily.

Even more intriguing is the fact that simple, proven, economic principles aren’t well known, nor it appears, comprehended by our ruling elite. There can be no doubt that the past four years of a Congress led by progressives have resulted in economic catastrophe for the country. For a short list, click here.

As I’ve chronicled, there are very sound reasons for our economic plight, none of which need to happen. We could be free from this recession if only we had the proper people in place in Washington who knew what the rest of the country already knows about finances. Despite what the elites tell you, economics is a simple science: if you’ve ever balanced your checkbook, then you know more about economics than Timothy Geithner and Ben Bernanke combined.

And Nancy Pelosi, who thinks that unemployment insurance payments stimulate the economy. Sorry, Nan, you couldn’t be more wrong. UI is merely a placeholder until a real job comes along. I don’t know anyone who would rather be collecting unemployment when they could make far more money with a real job.

The disconnect with reality in Washington is breathtaking.

In addition to the needless confusion about what to do to kickstart the economy, there is another wrinkle of this debate that should concern you – class warfare.

Doesn’t it strike you as rather odd that a group of millionaires should want you to be angry with millionaires? Why? What did a millionaire ever do to harm you? Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t find a scintilla of logic in that argument. What I do find is psychosis, namely the psychosis of power, willing to divide a nation along economic lines to achieve it.

It wasn’t always like this. There once was a time when we aspired to greatness in America. Someone would create a better mousetrap and the world would beat a path to the mousetrap makers’ door, cash in hand. Every American wanted to become rich, every American had the opportunity to become rich. We still do, but there has been a movement, closely tied to the political left, that has poisoned this once-great idea. It’s become so entrenched in Washington, said so often in sound bites, that it’s starting to affect the rest of the nation. That poison is called class envy. It’s practitioners, well versed in their own foibles, project their problems onto the innocent in an effort to appear perfect in their own eyes.

This has led to the perversion that mistakenly thinks that everyone should be equal instead of having equal opportunities to excel. Note how this runs counter to their professed belief in diversity. We should all celebrate diversity, however when it comes to recognizing that people have diverse abilities, and thus will have diverse outcomes given the same circumstances, they all of a sudden demand equality.

That, gentle readers, is psychosis.

And we’re seeing psychosis writ large in this debate on maintaining the Bush tax rates. Millionaires on the left criticizing the moneyed in our society, the very thing that allows these elites to run for office. There aren’t many working folk running for office, due primarily to the constraints of money: they are too busy providing for their families.

Let’s stop for a moment and use their twisted logic:

1. They want us to hate the rich because they are somehow evil.

2. They are rich.

3. Yet, they don’t want us to hate them.

4. ?

In fact, the opposite is true – the ruling elite wish us to become disengaged from politics so we can leave everything to them. They balk at any efforts to reduce their power or restrain them in any way. Hell, they won’t even subject themselves to the laws that they create for the rest of us.

Folks, in case you haven’t noticed, we can’t keep going on like this. Not and keep our freedom and prosperity.

We must restore sanity to our government. We started to do that in the mid-term elections. We must insure that this is the last gasp of progressivism in our nation. Like an exorcism, all of the evil comes spewing out at the last, right before the evil spirit's death and things get back to normal for the victim.

We must eliminate the mental illness of political liberalism if we are to survive.