I mentioned yesterday that Senator Johnson of Wisconsin did a good job at the Senate Budget Committee’s hearing on tax reform. Today, I want to elaborate on two of his points.
First, he asked all three of the witnesses what the maximum marginal tax rate on any American should be. The two leftists on the panel, Len Berman and Diane Lim Rogers, hemmed and hawed because they (correctly) smelled a trap. But the Senator persisted and Len said something in the range of 45 percent and Diane said 70 percent-80 percent. This matters because recent polling data shows that the vast majority of Americans don’t want any of their fellow citizens to ever pay more than 30 percent.
Most Republicans aren’t smart enough to focus on arguments that are simultaneously economically sound and politically effective, so kudos to Senator Johnson.
The Wisconsin lawmaker also hit hard on the notion of phony spending cuts, a point near and dear to my heart (as you can see by these interviews with Judge Napolitano and John Stossel).
I touched on this yesterday, but I want to share a chart that Senator Johnson used during the testimony. As you can see, Obama’s budget doesn’t call for any budget cuts.
When Obama released his budget, I did a post showing how annual spending was going to be $2 trillion higher in 10 years than it is today. But I think I’ll steal Senator Johnson’s chart since it makes the same point more dramatically.
I’ve already confessed to having man crushes (in the philosophical sense) on Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, and Rand Paul. If Senator Johnson continues this good work, I may have to become really promiscuous.
[...] Read More By Dan Mitchell [...]
Lenin was absolutely, adamantly crystal clear when he said that socialism would not work in a single country. As long as there is a single, solitary free country left on the planet, the wealthy and the productive would just leave.
Germany tried to do it anyway, initially taxing severely and finally confiscating virtually every possesion of those wanting out. People still lined up and swamped the processing center that was trying to control the egress. Eventually that was given up on and they used a fence, then guards, then finally a wall. Better to kill those wanting to leave instead of letting them set up and have a happy life, contributing to the success of competing countries. contributing t to the
[...] Read More at Dan Mitchell’s blog. [...]
[...] used during the testimony. As you can see,Obama’s budget doesn’t call for any budget cuts.Read More at Dan Mitchell’s blog.Related posts:Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) Interviewed At CPAC 2012 1,000+ days without a budget and [...]
This just shows how th Democratic Liberal Progressives think about your hard earned money. They believe that they (the government) should be able to keep most of what you earn and you can have back what they think you need or should have. This is not what America, the Free Mrket or our government should be. All of your earnings should be yours to keep after all You earned it not the Government. that is also what Ron Paul promotes, Maximum Liberty Maximum Freedom for te people Minimum Government Minimum Government Control or intrusions into your life, your freedoms,and your Liberties. Now America, what type of Government do you want.
Frugal!!!??? Obama’s budget is a lot of things but Frugal??? I don’t think so… He’s like the wife that spends 2x what you make in a year and then tries to say she’s saving you money… Actually, he is EXACTLY like that considering how much the Debt that skyrocketed under this buffoon…
Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson is spot on!
Defintion of “Budget cut” from the New Standard Lexical Reference Manual on DC Etymological Corruption:
Budget cut: Any** increase** in funding that grows more slowly than expected, year-on-year, e.g. “we were going to see a 20% budget increase at the Office of For Women and Children, just like last year, but that’s been reduced to only a 10% increase so our budget is being cut! THE SKY IS FALLING! AIIIIIEEEEE! WOMEN AND CHILDREN STARVING IN THE STREETS! REPUBLICANS HATE HUMANS (and kittens)! YEARRRRGHHHHH!
The leftists on the panel must figure they will be taken care of when Ovomit finally establishes his dictatorship. They sure don’t appear to be very bright answering as they did. Especially Diane Lim Rogers, whoever she is.
We have seen in the last several years instances of the leftists giving away the plan of the commies in this current administration. It is nothing short of complete control of the lives of the citizens of this nation, reminiscent of the old Soviet Union, present day Venezuela and Cuba, etc.
Time to punch back, people. Before it is too late. There may not be an election this year or any year thereafter, if we don’t express our outrage and anger with our Congress now. Email, fax, call, write letters to each and every one of them, including the good ones (so few) in D.C. They must act to protect us from these enemies from within or surely a lot of us will be inhabiting detention camps in the near future.
Liberalism is a serious mental disorder.
We people of Wisconsin are not the back-woods dummies that some take us for. We work hard and we play hard, and what we work hard for we would like to keep. Maybe there is hope for the people of my state yet. We have a new Gov. who is REALY turning this state around in spite of Obummers friends (the unions). Now we have a Sen. from our state we can be equally proud of (not like Feingold!!!!). Then there are the brain dead morons that can’t find their butt with both hands that are pushing for a recall election. “STUPID!!!!!!” They are just like little kids on the playground. Don’t get their way they get all bucky!!!! Grow up!!! The time to make your voice heard if you are not satisfied is in the next “REGULAR” election, not by recall costing the taxpayers upwards of $9 million. I don’t know why the rest of us should pay. The people who signed the recall papers should be the only ones charged for this……
I wrote the following about the above chart from Senator Johnson at http://economistmom.com/2012/03/the-tax-policy-and-the-economy-fairy-tale/#comment-70911 :
In addition, that first chart that he [Senator Johnson] had held up was highly misleading. It listed the 10-year spending for the years 1992-2001, 2002-2011 (actual) and 2013-2022 (projected) to have been 16, 28, and 47 trillion dollars, respectively. Of course, the chart should have included the title “THESE NUMBERS ARE NOT CORRECTED FOR INFLATION AND ARE THEREFORE TOTALLY USELESS”. He then goes into a discussion of receipts as a percentage of GDP. This is, in fact, probably the most useful way to measure receipts and outlays. As a percentage GDP, outlays in 1992-2001, 2002-2011, and 2013-2022 averaged 19.9, 21.2, and 22.5 percent of GDP, respectively. And Summary Table S-6 from the budget projects that, from 2013 to 2022, discretionary outlays will fall from 7.7% to 5.0%, mandatory outlays will rise slightly from 14.0% to 14.4%, and net interest will rise from 1.5% to 3.3% of GDP. Hence, the big increase in spending will come from interest as rates rise from their current low rates. One other item of interest is that receipts for the three 10-year periods are 18.9%, 16.7%, and 19.2%, respectively. Hence, a part of the debt problem is the drop in receipts over the last decade.
Another odd, if not misleading, comment was made by Dr. Mitchell after Diane. He pointed out that for much of our early history, the tax rate was zero and that zero would be the rate in his fantasyland. This would indeed be a fantasyland in that I suppose that the revenue fairy would have to pay for the armed forces and any other government services Dr. Mitchell feels are necessary. Also, he fails to mention that some taxes, like tariffs were much higher in the past.
[...] of the panelists, Dr. Mitchell, posted this chart on his blog and stated the following: When Obama released his budget, I did a post showing how annual [...]
[...] already confessed to man-crushes on Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Ron Johnson, and (or course) the Gipper, but it’s time for me to cross partisan and racial boundaries and [...]