subject: Government Takeover: "Bush Tax Cuts" Are Now OK [print this page] Government Takeover: "Bush Tax Cuts" Are Now OK
... As Long As Liberals Can Keep Spending Wildly
by Michael D. Hume, M.S.
Today's Pearl Harbor Day, but too few in the U.S. are focused on commemorating America's survival of one of the most heinous attacks ever to take place on its soil. Instead, too many people are distracted today by the bomb dropped by the liberal government late yesterday. They've struck a corrupt bargain to extend the current income tax rates only by accompanying that measure with a massive extension of unemployment benefits.
President Obama and his "progressive" cronies, whose movement toward American socialism began with their predecessors more than a century ago, depend upon an aggressive Tax And Spend principle to drive the profit motive to its knees and "fundamentally transform" America to a collectivist economy. They're oh, so close now. They've nearly been able to collapse the greatest free-market economy in history under the weight of spending, debt, and entitlements... and if they could do that, well, like all collectivist societies in history, they can take complete totalitarian control over every aspect of American life.
The problem with pulling this off in America, of course, is that Americans want no part of it. That's the story problem liberals have struggled with for generations: how do you get millions of people to voluntarily walk off the proverbial cliff? The answer, though difficult, was simple. First, you have to slowly, patiently, one professor or reporter at a time, take over the institutions by which Americans keep themselves informed and engaged. It took a hundred years of "progression," but the liberals finally do have control of the major inputs of our minds: the education system, the media, government at all levels, and even Hollywood. And now, Eureka! They can proceed to the crucial stage of the operation: Misinformation. They can present Tax And Spend as a set of policies which will do exactly the opposite of what they know they will really do.
What are the main things you hear the liberal leaders in Washington proclaim they favor?
"Creating Jobs!" That's a big one. But the truth is the liberals really don't want you to have a job. If you have a job, you have some control over your own desitiny. They would rather you be a Victim, living off the beneficence of the government, dependent for your existence on such "benefits" as food stamps and - oh, yeah! - unemployment payments. You can already live on unemployment for 99 weeks - almost two years - under current U.S. policy. But now, thanks to last night's deal, they will extend that for 13 months. Why? Because it was possible that, even after 99 idle weeks, some skilled American workers might still have some pilot-light of motivation and some modicum of remaining skills. The progressives want to snuff those right out. Stop dreaming of independence, Homer, and get back in the unemployment line.
"Growing the Economy!" Another familiar cry. But if they really wanted to grow the economy, they'd unleash the free market with dramatic tax cuts (beyond just extending the current rates, which does not, in fact, cut ANY income taxes), and with curtailed government spending, and with more reasonable industrial regulations. But in the four years since Mr. Obama's party took control of Congress, and with a marked acceleration in the most recent two years since he took office, the government has proceeded in exactly the opposite direction. The truth is, growing the economy is the last thing the liberals want to do. They want to grow the government. And so far, hats off to them for a jolly good job of it. Look no further than the government takeover of the U.S. health care system, which transfers control of nearly a sixth of the economy from the private sector to the government sector over the next several years (unless it is repealed).
"Protect Small Business!" Again, it's the last thing they want to do. If you own your own business, you have even more control over your life than you have with a traditional job. That's part of the reason the liberals have continually parroted the class-warfare message, urging you to insist upon low taxes for everyone except "the rich." If they really wanted small businesses to succeed, they wouldn't favor soaking anyone who makes more than $250,000 annually. That includes just about all the entrepreneurs who create the vast majority of jobs in America. Which brings us to...
"No tax cuts for The Wealthiest Americans!" They need you to believe you are victimized by your employer, and "saved" only by your benevolent government. And the U.S. is not alone in this: there is a global conspiracy against wealth by which $50 trillion will transfer from the uninformed to the informed over the next few years. Just as FDR's "New Deal" policies deepened and extended the Great Depression in order to take a giant step toward socialism, Obama's program seeks to sprint toward the finish line by deepening and extending the current difficulties to the point of no return. His own former chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, said as much when he told a reporter "you never want to let a crisis go to waste" early in Obama's presidency.
So the bargain to extend the current tax rates by giving in on more massive entitlement spending is a bad deal, and one the opposition party didn't have to make. Americans, given voice by the tea party movement, are sick of the Tax And Spend program. It would have been at their own great peril that the president and his liberal colleagues allowed any taxes to go higher. But the Republican leadership gave in anyway, and now the liberals can claim at least a partial victory, and continue their "progressive" march toward a new America.
Let's hope the next Congress is made of sterner stuff. We need to put the brakes on the president and his agenda, because the new America sought by liberals is not a place Americans will want to live.
