DEMOCRATS SHOW WHO THEY REALLY ARE by Tim Siggia

DEMOCRATS SHOW WHO THEY REALLY ARE

By Tim Siggia

May 16, 2007

There is an old Homeric adage from The Iliad which most of us learned in high school: "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts." -- and it is as true today as it was in the days of the Trojan War.

Here in Connecticut, the "Greeks" are the Democratic Party, and their version of the Trojan Horse is their latest attempt to portray themselves as the "Party of the People" with a so-called tax cut that would reduce the rate of state taxation for 90 percent of Connecticut's residents, those earning less than $199,000 per year, with the only increases to be made on those making that amount or more. In other words, it's another typical, Democrat-inspired soak-the-rich tax scheme that amounts to nothing more than state redistribution of wealth, with no real reduction either in taxation or state spending.

At first glance, of course, people might be inclined to jump at this. After all, how many of us are in the $200,000-plus income range? And as for the rich, well, they can afford to fork over a few more extra bucks -- pay their "fair share", as Democrats are so fond of putting it. The thing is, however, whenever we hear Democrats talking about tax cuts in a positive way, we should recognize a bright red flag of warning. Democrats are not about tax cuts, and haven't been since the days of J. F. K. Traditionally, they have always been for tax increases, not tax cuts. And, when we look a little deeper, we might just see reasons why this might not be such a good deal for Joe and Joanna Sixpack after all.

Now I freely admit that I never took economics in college, and am therefore no Milton Friedman. My academic shortcomings having thus been forthrightly acknowledged, I would also remind the Democrats that I am not Big Bird either. Connecticut is not Sesame Street, and its taxpayers are not the motley collection of Berts and Ernies our Democratic legislators seem to believe them to be. We have eyes, ears, and minds, all of which we ourselves are fully capable of using by ourselves, without the aid of puppeteers.

Suppose the Democrats' proposal gets enacted. Good news for 90 percent of us, in the short run -- but only in the short run. For the balance of revenue we the not-so-rich are not paying, the state will be looking to the rich -- those earning at or above the $199,000 water line -- to provide. And there's the rub, as Shakespeare's Hamlet once put it.

The key word here is "earning." Place yourself, if you will, in the shoes of one who has earned that much. Naturally you want to be a good citizen, isn't that what most people want to be, after all? However, the money you have earned is your money. It does not become the money of those who appropriate it. By taking a larger share of your money than of most other people's is the state not punishing your success? What Connecticut currently has is, in effect, a flat tax. All Connecticut residents earning $25,000 a year or more are taxed at the same rate. By introducing what in fact is a graduated income tax, the same as what the federal government already does, an element of unfairness is added, placing an even higher burden on those who already are, in fact, paying their fair share.

But what's all this to me, you might ask. I'm not rich. If the Democrats want to give me a break and make the rich pay for it, why should I complain. Well, let's look at that. Once again, consider the rich. How does what they do affect the rest of us? Consider, first of all, that even with the income tax as it is, putting it into figures we can all relate to, let's say the rate of taxation is 10 percent. (Actually, it's more, but 10's an easy number to work with.) Ten percent of $25,000 is $2, 500, is it not? Ten percent of $200,000, on the other hand, is $20,000 -- $17,500 more than the guy making $25,000 a year is paying. That is fair. So the reality is that the rich are already providing the lion's share of state revenue, as they do at the federal level. Consider also that these are the people who take risks, start businesses, drive the economy and create jobs. Now let's also recall that Connecticut is already the most highly taxed state in the nation, Number One with regard to the amount of time its residents have to wait until Tax Freedom Day. What, therefore, might be the natural reaction to our more well-heeled residents to yet another tax increase? As Mister Rogers might have put it: "Can you say, 'exodus'?"

As well-to-do Connecticut residents thus leave for more hospitable climes, there is still this tax revenue to be collected. Well, guess what, Joe and Joanna Sixpack: You've just inherited a tax hike! Why? Because we now have fewer of those evil, greedy rich people to provide the state's revenue, so what does the legislature of course do? They lower the gradations for the higher tax levels. That's the dirty little secret the Democrats don't want you to know when they start talking about what they call "targeted tax cuts."

However, the Connecticut Republicans threw a monkey wrench into all this unforeseen by the Democrats: Our Republicans, for once, actually started acting like Republicans, and, in the face of rising gasoline prices, proposed a suspension of state gasoline taxes from Memorial Day to Labor Day, with the loss of revenue to be taken care of by an estimated $800 million surplus. How do the Democrats react to this? House Speaker James Amman calls it "fiscally irresponsible." With the state having taken $800 million more of our money than was actually needed, it is now considered fiscally irresponsible to give even a portion of it back, in the form of a tax suspension, to those who earned it? Only to a Democrat would that make sense. But, more importantly, it shows us all who the Democrats really are when it comes to tax cuts. This is how they react to a real tax cut, not the smoke-and-mirrors kind they're trying to foist upon us right now.

That the Democrats should lecture anyone on fiscal responsibility is the height of hypocrisy. Thank you, Republicans, for forcing them to show us all, once and for all, who they really are.