I Like Him 'Cause He Raised My Taxes

Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner jumps into the state's Senate race with a 20-point-plus lead: He drubs Congressman Tom Davis or former Gov. Jim Gilmore, last seen waging a doomed presidential campaign against Rudy McRomney. We take Warner's popularity for granted, but think of what the three candidates are best known for. Davis is a liberal, Gilmore cut the car tax, and Warner passed a hefty tax increase. That's what he's remembered for. He lost a tax hike referendum, took it to the Republican legislature, got it passed, and left office with a budget surplus and a 75 percent approval rating.

How did that happen? Daniel Franklin and A.G. Newmyer's 2005 article "Is Grover Over" pointed out that the salience and electoral pull of anti-tax movements started slipping in the mid-oughts, with Virginia as a prime example.

Norquist and the Club for Growth have vowed to defeat dozens of Republican legislators who supported the tax hike, dubbing them "Virginia's Least Wanted." "We had a bunch of worthless Republicans in the Senate who have been there forever and don't have any core free market beliefs," complained Club for Growth then-President Stephen Moore in an online chat. "They sold us out and then enough Benedict Arnold Republicans in the House went along. The good news is that these Republicans are through politically--we will be sure of that."

Two years ago, anti-tax groups made good on earlier threats to target legislators who referred regional sales tax hikes to voters, unseating the House transportation committee chair. But there is a different mood in Richmond. John Chichester, the Republican president pro tempore of the Virginia Senate who steered the tax hike through as finance chairman, calls Norquist and Moore "generals without armies…. The Norquist crowd--if they had a flame burning someplace, it's dimming now. The shrillness and strident rhetoric probably did their cause more harm than good."

A few months after this article came out some of the liberal Republicans who backed Warner's tax hike got defeated by Norquist-backed candidates. A few months after that those nominees were beaten by Democrats and Warner's lieutenant governor won the governorship. And yet I see the official anti-Warner site is all about how Warner raised taxes after he said he wouldn't.

Anti-tax activists I talk to are hoping for a stronger Republican (like Rep. Eric Cantor) to enter the race but worry that Warner might be unbeatable. So what's that say about anti-tax politics right now?

Comments

[Warren]

So what's that say about anti-tax politics right now?

We're all screwed

[Pro Libertate]

The statists have won. All libertarians, please exit the country in an orderly fashion.

[Episiarch]

That people are so used to taxes increasing that they no longer raise a fuss--it's now perceived as inevitable. I've seen this all over the place.

[NotThatDavid]

People can be convinced that taxes can be used to pay for things I want?

Honestly, I'd rather see this than people who get upset when politicians fail to both lower taxes and enlarge government programs.

[NotThatDavid]

Things they want! Argh. I swear, that wasn't Freudian. The point is that I'd don't mind people having political views opposite my own when they're at least intellectually consistent about it.

[The Artist Formerly Know as Tr]

"That people are so used to taxes increasing that they no longer raise a fuss--it's now perceived as inevitable. I've seen this all over the place."

Your attitude is being noticed Commrade.

[Cab]

FWIW, if I remember correctly, Warner's tax increase was actually lower than the tax increase supported by the Republicans at the time.

[Dan T.]

So what's that say about anti-tax politics right now?

It could simply mean that people are figuring out that taxes in and of themselves are not necessarily a bad thing. It's the value you get in return that's important.

Taxes are nothing more than the price of living in a certain community. Like any price, you pay it if you think it's worth it, and if you don't then you go elsewhere.

[Cesar]

Anti-tax activists I talk to are hoping for a stronger Republican (like Rep. Eric Cantor)

Was that supposed to be a joke? Hes from a gerrymandered district and is an intellectual lightweight. He'd be destroyed in a state-wide election.

[joe]

Maybe it's a good idea to raise taxes in some circumstances but not in others?

Maybe Virginians got a good, hard look at what anti-tax government-starving actually accomplishes, and didn't like it?

[Cesar]

Maybe Virginians got a good, hard look at what anti-tax government-starving actually accomplishes, and didn't like it?

Gilmore wasn't exactly a "government starver". He tried to cut taxes but spent like a drunk sailor. That, not his tax cuts, was the real reason for the budget crises in the early 2000s.

FWIW Warner also cut spending quite a bit.

[Rex Rhino]

It could simply mean that people are figuring out that taxes in and of themselves are not necessarily a bad thing. It's the value you get in return that's important.

You mean like failing schools, collapsing bridges and infrastructure, losing foreign wars, FEMA debacles, bridges to nowhere, and a police-state in the name of fighting drugs and terror? And big contracts for Haliburton?

And to think, you only have to pay half a years earnings or more to get all those great returns!! But I am sure if the government would take 80% or 90% of people's incomes, it would be so different!

I don't think it is the returns, I think it is the Stockholm syndrome. Kinda like when I read those old interviews of former slaves in the South and they explain how slavery wasn't all that bad, because they hardly ever got whipped and the Master fed them pretty good.

[Reinmoose]

It could simply mean that people are figuring out that taxes in and of themselves are not necessarily a bad thing. It's the value you get in return that's important.

Or, like I mentioned yesterday, the majority of the voters (who are the ones who matter for elections) don't really have any f'ing clue what's actually going on.

[joe]

I'll take your word for it, Cesar.

Rex, has it ever occured to you that some segment of political disagreement with you could be attributed to forces other than the personal and mental shortcomings of those who aren't strict right-libertarians?

[Patricia Mathews]

It says we're tired of crumbling infrastructure and 'meaner, leaner' government services which have, in fact been digesting their own muscle tissue for some time. It means a new generation of politicians (not that Warner is anything of the sort) are running on a platform of Getting Things Done. And fixed. Because winter is coming, folks, and we need to get our bridges and roads fixed, not to mention the schoolhouse roof.

[Cesar]

It might be a bit of heresy on my part, but I prefer raising taxes and spending to cutting taxes and spending. I hate high taxes, but I hate unbalanced budgets and deficits more.

[ddd]

Mr. Weigel,

You write poorly; please take some classes.

[Shannon Love]

It could be that people have simply forgotten what runaway taxation feels like.

For all our present day tax and spending woes, governments at all levels show significantly more financial discipline than they did back in the late 60's and 70's. Back then taxation exploded, services imploded and deficits ran wild. Our major cities almost collasped. Inflation ran wild.

We now have a new generation come to full adulthood since those days and even those of us who are older can forget. After nearly 30 years, the memory the harm done by excessive taxation and widespread unbalanced budgets fades away. Everybody begins to think that taxes to fund their pet project couldn't hurt anything.

Perhaps each generation has to relearn the hard way.

[joe]

This generation learned that the alternative to trickle down beast-starving isn't 1950s tax rates, but those in place during the 1990s.

Warner, in particular, was a centrist New Dem.

[Typical voter]

Yes, he did raise my taxes. But he raised YOUR taxes even MORE. That's why I support him.

[plunge]

"It could be that people have simply forgotten what runaway taxation feels like."

And they still have no idea. Taxes in Virginia are still historically and comparatively 9to other states) pretty low, and the largest problems facing the state are still huge infrastructure needs like roads, bridges, and so forth. Someone has to pay for that stuff (and guess what happens when people try to institute more commercialized road alternatives like fee roads? REPUBLICANS scream about how its all roads for the rich!)

Lets not forget the joke of the "Car Tax," which was "eliminated" by the state simply paying localities back the money they would lose by reducing it... which lowered overall taxes not at all, made taxation LESS local, and which anti-tax people for some reason still got all excited about.

And before that, smarty pants George Allen "eliminated parole"... costing the state even more millions.

In Virginia, anti-taxers have introduced one scam after another, broke the budget with run away spending, and the people finally got sick of it.

Don't complain to people like Warner for the mistakes other people made.

[Paco]

Gilmore cut the car tax (which was deductible from my Fed income taxes) and refused to consider the non-deductible sales tax. The fckr charged me a dollar and game back 75 cents. Warner came in and raised the sales tax, 'cause the General Assembly didn't want to pay taxes on their fancy cars, and sales taxes hit the democrats voting block harder.

[Jason Sonenshein]

"Gilmore wasn't exactly a "government starver". He tried to cut taxes but spent like a drunk sailor. That, not his tax cuts, was the real reason for the budget crises in the early 2000s."

Good point, Cesar. A tax cut without an equal and concomitant spending cut isn't really a tax cut at all, but merely a tax deferral. The bills are going to come due sooner or later.

[Paco]

During Gilmore's term the dot.com capital-gains tax bubble was in full play. When Warner came in, that all turned to crap and a buget crises ensued. The red team didn't want to yank back their "No Car Tax" slogan. Disclaimer: I drive an '87 Chevy and my car tax was essentially zero prior to the tax cut.

[Paco]

Stupid keyboard @ 8:52
game back = gave back

[Cesar]

Regardless, Mark Warner is my next Senator. The RPVA is just plain pathetic. The best they can do is Tom Davis and thats still like sending a tricycle against a M-1 tank. If he doesn't run, they get to choose between Gilmore and Pat Buchanan. Hoo boy, what a choice.

[Politics with Pam]

Folks,

There is plenty of money in Richmond. It's almost obscene that it takes 200+ bloated state agencies to accomplish the 4 basics of state govt. There is no one prioritizing the spending and cutting out the fluff & waste.

You folks that like to work hard for your money and then hand a huge chunk of it to the govt...and still more every time they cry wolf. I can't understand that thought process.

Sorry--I need the paycheck I work for to do silly things like save for retirememt, pay my mortgage, send kids to college etc.

The govt-state or federal does not need a another single cent of my paycheck.

[ChrisO]

Demographically, Va. is becoming swamped with all of the government workers and parasites who live north of Fredericksburg. That, more than anything, explains why Mark Warner has become the big enchilada in Va. politics.

Of course, it doesn't help that the Va. GOP appears to have the IQ of a geranium. And the Va. Libertarian Party? To laugh is to cry...

Va. is well on its way to northeastern-style "Sweden-style taxes for Mexico-level services."

[andronoid]

I'm glad you you said "North of Fredericksburg." "Central Park" should be the new libertarian headquarters.

[TheCurseOfLono]

Taxe raises are not in every single case bad. If the guy can leave office with a surplus instead of a deficit, he's doing something right. Theoretically, supply side is great, historically, not so much, because the government doesn't control it's spending at the same time. Take Canada for instance. Do we here in the great white north have higher taxes? Sure, but our country isn't slowly going bankrupt our running up a massive deficit. Our dollar is close to parity with the american one, and it would not surprise me to see it actually become more valued than the american dollar. And the taxes here are getting slowly (and responsibly) lowered.

[TheCurseOfLono]

"or running up a massive deficit" I should say.

[Mark Borok]

"If the guy can leave office with a surplus instead of a deficit, he's doing something right."

Although one does hope that the surplus will be used to shore up the state's economy during the next recession, rather than being spent on pet projects of dubious value.

[Liberrty4All]

Small government types are SCREWED for the next few election cycles at the VERY LEAST. Lets just hope the damage done by the locust statists who are swarming right now is kept to a minimum. Although as a libertarian I think most people don't mind big government so long as someone elses ox is being gored. It's a depressing time isn't it?

[grumpy realist]

Look--people hate taxes but they like having the services that the taxes pay for even more.

So if a majority of the population decides they are happy with the system, who are you to argue with them? If you want to avoid taxes that much, move to Somalia. Put your money where your mouths are.

[sv]

don't forget that according to mr. wiegel, it first lost in a referendum before being passed by the senate. so apparently the people forgave him for over-ruling their will, i guess he did a good job with other things, or put the funds to good use, or made damn good pantomimes in that direction. i dont know, i'm from jersey.

[Liberty4All]

Liberal yuppies in Northern Virginia are making the state more democratic, they did the same for New Jersey. In his defense though Warner did pose as a cultural centrist - on guns I believe.

[Cesar]

In his defense though Warner did pose as a cultural centrist - on guns I believe.

Endorsed by the NRA, and got an A+ rating.

[Robert]

It could simply mean that people are figuring out that taxes in and of themselves are not necessarily a bad thing. It's the value you get in return that's important.

Do you really think gov't can shop much better or worse with our money?

[Liberty4All]

Thanks Cesar - I recall him being good on guns but wasn't sure.

[Liberty4All]

I have a question, don't you think the more we look to government for solutions, the more slave like we will become? With the growth of government involvement in everything we do, won't our sense of individualism and entrepreneurial spirit fade? I think there will be the inevitable erosion of our civil liberties in everything from where we travel, what we eat and how we worship. It seems to me, the electorate is swinging in the statist direction and the consequences will be dire. What do to you think libertarians can do to form a more vigorous resistance to what seems like the majority opinion?

[Gary]

< I have a question, don't you think the more we look to government for solutions, the more slave like we will become?>

Everyone should turn to monopoly multi-national corporations for services, and privatized (handed to cronies) services built by taxpayers.

Then we will be less slave like.

Gatto describes the "socialism" in public schooling as a form of "socialization" pushed for by corporations and industry, down through govt, to the schools. Not due to 'communist teachers'.

Non-thinking obedience and memorization, socialization tests, and destroying natural curiousity, all in order to create good little bots.

[Gary]

altho govt waste is a problem nobody likes, especially wars of conquest, perhaps 'drowning the baby in the bathtub' as a campaign slogan just got a little tiring.