Democrats scoff at tax protests; history comes full circle

It's not yours, it's the government's! Fork it over!

Someday, I'm going to publish a book titled The Audacity Of Politicians. That's the only word I can think of that describes the rhetoric emanating from Washington these days.

On Thursday, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D, IL) made a statement that, to a sane person with a little history and knowledge under his belt, sounds quite... audacious.

“The 'tea parties' being held today by groups of right-wing activists, and fueled by FOX News Channel, are an effort to mislead the public about the Obama economic plan that cuts taxes for 95 percent of Americans and creates 3.5 million jobs...it's despicable that right-wing Republicans would attempt to cheapen a significant, honorable moment of American history with a shameful political stunt...made to look like a grassroots uprising, this is an Obama bashing party promoted by corporate interests, as well as Republican lobbyists and politicians.”

Wow. And I thought the Tea Parties amounted to Americans exercising their Constitutional right to peaceably assemble. Thanks, Jan, for setting me straight.

Allow me to translate Schakowsky's statement into plain English: Barack Obama is an historic leader with good intentions and a bold plan, and you have no right to oppose him! Your money rightfully belongs to the government, and to protest its confiscation is selfish and immoral! The government knows what's best for you, and to question us is tantamount to treason! And if you do, it must be due to the sinister machinations of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy!

Sorry, Burlingtonians – you'll now have to remove your “dissent is patriotic” bumper stickers from your cars. Dissent is no longer in vogue. It is now “despicable.” Listen to your masters.

I think Schakowsky's statement bespeaks a common pathological mindset among politicians, especially Democrats beholden to Barack Obama: government is never big enough, and it is your duty to feed it. Why? Because government will spend your money better than you will, and will do so for your own good. Free markets wreck society; government fixes it. So be a patriot and pay up!

This is all crap, of course. For all the leftist grumbling about the capitalist “ruling classes” and the supposed subjugation of “workers” (such a Commie word) under free markets, we've nevertheless seen our standard of living grow exponentially in the relatively short existence of our nation. The “poor” in modern America can afford luxuries that the poor of the nineteenth century (and of today in many other countries) could see only in their wildest dreams.

Do you really think government had anything to do with that? Winston Churchill once said, “For a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.”

I'm sick of pulling out the old standbys, the greatest hits of collectivism, to see how this has worked out in the past. But I'm going to do it anyway. The Soviet Union. Maoist China. Castro's Cuba. Khmer Rouge-dominated Cambodia. North Korea. Not to mention double-digit unemployment in modern Germany. Really smashing success stories! What are Jan Schakowsky and Barack Obama going to tell me now? “A century of failure proves nothing?”

So why are these politicians so eager to try what history shows has clearly failed, time and again? Ignorance? Perhaps. Denial? Maybe. Cynicism and a thirst for power? That sounds more like it.

Savor for a moment the fact that a United States Representative, supposedly a voice for the people, is spitting on an invaluable First Amendment right...because it's inconvenient for her. It's an obstacle to her power, and that of her colleagues. So she trashes it. Claims to the contrary notwithstanding, the Tea Parties were grassroots uprisings, voicing a clear objection to waste, burdensome taxes, and the vastly expanding power of the federal government. Well, that's bad for Obama's Great Leap Forward, so it can't be condoned.

Also, savor a little bit longer the fact that Schakowsky is citing bogus numbers to demonstrate the inherent altruism of Obama's plan. “Cuts taxes for 95 percent of Americans?” That remark alone reveals just how stupid she thinks you and I are.

Daniel J. Mitchell wrote in Town Hall magazine, “While upper-income taxpayers finance an enorous share of government, many Americans pay nothing – or almost nothing. According to the Tax Foundation, about one-third of all taxpayers have no income-tax liability. The IRS, meanwhile, reports that the bottom 40 percent of the population, measured as a group, have a negative income tax liability. This means that what little tax they pay is more than offset by the income redistribution (the so-called income credit) they receive through the tax system.”

At least be honest about your intentions. If you want to redistribute wealth even more aggressively, then I dare you to try. But don't insult my intelligence by calling it a “tax cut.”

“Creates 3.5 million jobs?” You have got to be kidding me. What are you going to pay those 3.5 million people to do? Dig holes in the ground and then fill them back up? Roosevelt's New Deal, which Obama is eagerly trying to outdo, didn't resuscitate the economy with government make-work jobs because those jobs didn't produce any wealth. Government jobs consume wealth.

High, confiscatory taxes will not create jobs; they will destroy them. Small business owners are among the hardest hit, because they can't afford to absorb the costs. All you'll end up with are more corporate monopolies and a monstrous Leviathan state, which will increasingly emerge as the only “viable” employer in sight. Democrats love to rail against monopolies; why can't they start with themselves?

It's impossible. It's not in their blood. Politicians and bureaucrats inevitably seek to expand their power and dominion over what they consider to be the “masses.” It lessens their accountability for their actions, justifies the existence of their jobs, and fuels their egos. “Civil servant” is an outdated term. They strive to be planners, leaders, masters, far above the common man.

What's really happening, in a bitterly ironic twist of history, is this: our government is morphing into the same oppressive British Empire from which the Pilgrims fled, from which our Founders declared independence – and against which colonists protested by dumping taxed tea into Boston Harbor.

And now that ordinary Americans are protesting them, they're laughing and calling them names.

And where is our gallant media, the free press charged with scrutinizing such unscrupulous government excess – at least before Obama ascended and they became willing sycophants? What are they up to these days? Oh, here they are, courtesy of Anderson Cooper, mocking the protesters: “It's hard to talk when you're teabagging.”

Stay classy, CNN.