Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Driving Miss Emily

In a breathless frontpage post, Redstate contributor "bluey" announces:

Democrats are about to raise your taxes!!

That headline grabs your attention, doesn't it? So lets go looking for the tax increase.
The U.S. House hasn't voted to raise taxes for 13 years, but that streak is about to come to an end -- less than three weeks after Democrats took control of Congress.

Wow. Sounds like it's going to happen pretty soon. But from the front page, you have to look below the fold for the details. Mr. bluey provides a quote and a link. Now we're getting somewhere.
Dan Clifton of the American Shareholders Association reports that Democrats will bring an end to the "golden era" of taxpayer-friendly policies this Thursday.

This Thursday!! Holy cats!! What taxes are going up? Good thing Mr. bluey is going to tell us. Here's the quote he lifts from the the ASA's Mr. Clifton:
It took just 15 days of new found power for the Democrats to raise taxes. The first vote of the 110th Congress removed the 3/5 supermajority to raise taxes. The following day was a vote to enact a new rule requiring offsetting tax increases for every tax cut.

So it was only a matter of time before the first actual vote to raise taxes came up. The significance of this should not be underestimated as Thursday's vote is the first step in reversing what could be considered the best run for American taxpayers since the creation of the income tax.

The dirty bastards! Raising my taxes!! But wait. He didn't say which tax would be increased. Hm. Hafta keep reading.

Oh, no! It must be really bad. Mr. bluey says the Heritage Foundation predicts a disaster:
Just how disastrous would the Democrats' plan be for our country? A new report from the Heritage Foundation reveals the threat to America's prosperity.

Any tax increase on top of this rising burden would put America well on the way to European-level taxes, causing European-style economic stagnation, slow income growth, and unemployment. Even France has begun to recognize how damaging such levels are, and French President Jacques Chirac has proposed to cut France’s corporate income tax rate from 33 percent to 20 percent. Congress must ensure that the U.S. does not take even one step down the road to higher taxes and a slower economy.

Omigod! Omigod! "European-style economic stagnation?" AIEEEEE!! The dollar could go plunging like the Euro!!! Quick, Mr. bluey. Tell us what taxes are going up! Whuh? Oh. I see. I hafta click the link. OK, no problem. I'll look at the ASA link first.

Shoot! Clifton doesn't say what tax is going up either. But hold on!! He provides this link:
On Thursday, the House of Representatives will vote on legislation to increase taxes for the first time since 1993.

Aha! This takes us to the House Ways and Means Committee Website. It's all true! The Democrats are raising taxes!!! Now let's get to the awful truth. What does Ways and Means have to say?
WASHINGTON, D.C. – As part of House Democrats’ first 100 hours legislative agenda, Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick J. Rahall (D-WV) and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) today introduced a bill to curb taxpayer-funded subsidies to oil and gas companies and to invest those funds in renewable energy.

H.R. 6, the Creating Long-term Energy Alternatives for the Nation (CLEAN) Act, includes two components that will roll back the unnecessary tax benefits and costly federal oil and gas leasing provisions included in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The legislation would also help to correct the botched leases issued by the Interior Department between 1998 and 1999 – which, if left unchanged, could cost the Federal Treasury an estimated $60 billion over the next 25 years

See?!? See?!? The Democrats are raising the tax on...on...wait a minute. They're ending subsidies to oil and gas companies? The ones reporting all-time record profits? And they're making them start paying royalties that they've skated on for the last 8 years because of a screwup?

That's the tax increase? But...but...what about the "European-style stagnation"? If the change in oil and gas subsidies is going to cause an economic disaster, it must be a really, really bad thing. I'll check Mr. bluey's Heritage Foundation link. Here we go:
Meanwhile, federal taxes as a proportion of GDP are also scheduled to rise sharply under current law—from today's 18.4 percent, which is just above the post-World War II average, to almost 24 percent by 2050—well above the highest levels the nation has ever experienced.

What? The year 2050?!? I thought we were talking about this Thursday!!

So no tax increase? No "European-style stagnation"?

Oh. Nevermind.

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