Here a Tax, There a Tax, Everywhere a Tax

I wonder if the Democrats have any self awareness. To be fair, I often wonder that about a lot politicians. (and likely not nearly enough about myself) Since the health care debate started, I have lost track of all the taxes that one or another has proposed. I hope I remember them all: a soda tax, a cigarette tax, a value added tax, cutting the credit for charitable donations, Cadillac health insurance plans, employer funded health insurance plans, a windfall profits tax on insurance companies, an excise penalty for not having health insurance, an excise penalty to employers for not providing health insurance, an excise tax on those making $350,000 and more. Just this week Nancy Pelosi said she was open to the so called value added tax, or national sales tax, an then today the idea of a windfall profits' tax has been floated. I'm sure I forgot a few. At this pace, the Democrats will have suggested no less than three hundred different tax ideas to pay for their multi trillion dollars worth of spending ideas. Do the Democrats not realize that the worst stereotype against them is tax and spend?

Just try and put this into perspective. Is nothing sacred? The Democrats want to spend in the neighborhood of a trillion dollars in the next ten years on health care reform. That's of course projected and we can all be certain that it will be significantly more. To pay for it, they're ready to raise just about any tax they can think of. Do the Democrats realize that they have the perception of tax and spend?

Talk about reinforcing a stereotype. Since taking over, the Democrats have gone on an orgy of spending. The deficit is up to a whopping $1.4 trillion. That's about three times the deficit they all bemoaned in the last year. To pay for it they're willing to propose a tax on everything from soda, to all sales, to some income, to some health care benefits, to some profits, and everything in between.

The job I want is to be the person that thinks up ads to use against them in the next election. If there was any doubt that Democrats were lead by people that believed in tax and spend, no one should doubt it again. The only thing the Democrats have done since taking over is proposed, and/or enacted, a series of spending measures: the stimulus, the bailout, SCHIP, the foreclosure bailout, the mammoth budget, health care reform, and cap and trade. To pay for it all they've suggested a laundry list of taxes on everyone and everything.

The public rejects tax and spend each and everytime. That's because it doesn't work. Worse yet, it makes things worse. The domestic policy of the Democrats lead by President Obama is nothing more than a laundry list of spending proposals that are paid for by a laundry list of tax proposals. That's all it is. There's nothing else there. It's truly remarkable. Do the Democrats realize that they've spent the last nearly nine months doing nothing but reinforcing the most corossive stereotype of their party? Like I said, I want to be the person that dreams up the ads for all this tax and spending.