Politicians: Mild Spending Trims = Economically Devastating. Big Tax Hikes? No Problem!
As the nation girds itself for last-minute Sequester Hysteria Inflation, it's worth taking a moment to reflect on how statists have decisively revealed themselves these past two months. All you have to do is compare the blatant, coordinated politician-fearmongering in the run-up to Friday's statistically insignificant one-year trim in federal spending with the relative absence thereof in the face of the New Year's tax hike on 77 percent of Americans (by an average of $1,257).
The White House's "Seven Things You Need to Know About the Tax Deal" somehow managed to avoid discussing the negative impacts that the reduction in take-home pay will have on an already fragile economy. Yet here was President Barack Obama yesterday warning about the "hundreds of thousands of jobs" that will be lost due to the sequester cuts. The Obamaite Center for American Progress hailed the New Year's tax hike by saying "Of course, any new revenue is a step in the right direction." But if you take money out of bureacurats' pockets instead of taxpayers? "Sequestration Takes a Big Bite out of Economic Growth."
This is a basic, revealing conflict of philosophical visions. On one side are people, like these 350 economists, who believe that prosperity and jobs flow primarily from government spending. On the other side, the rest of us. When faced with having their fiefdoms inconvenienced, politicians will use our tax dollars on scaremongering where the emotional manipulation is right there in the headline: "Impact of…Cuts on Middle Class Families, Jobs, and Economic Security." When faced with inconveniencing taxpaying Americans, crickets.