Investor's Business Daily, September 27th, 2007
Politics: From powerful members of Congress to leading presidential candidates, Democrats think raising taxes on the middle class is the answer to everything. It's time to start thinking outside the government coffers.
"King of Pain" might be a new nickname for the longest-serving member of Congress, House Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell of Michigan.
Dingell is warning that a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth is needed to stop global warming -- namely a 50-cents-a-gallon gasoline tax, a $50-per-ton carbon tax, and the elimination of the mortgage interest deduction for larger homes.
Most of the new tax money would reportedly go toward new highways, mass transit, Social Security, health care and helping the poor with their energy bills. How exactly any of that new government spending reduces greenhouse gases remains a mystery.
"This is going to cause pain," the imposing 81-year-old, 6-foot-2 congressman, known as "Big John" and "The Truck," admitted to the Associated Press this week, adding that he wants to make sure "the pain is shared in a way that is fair, proper, acceptable and accomplishes the basic purpose" of cutting greenhouse gases.
To the middle class, the mortgage interest deduction is a sacred cow; politicians who suggest killing it tend not to fare well.
Take former Rep. Tom Downey of Long Island, N.Y., a rising young telegenic Democratic star. He lost his seat 15 years ago after suggesting that the tax break might have to go. But with nearly 52 years in the House providing job security, Dingell has little to fear.
On the campaign trail, meanwhile, Democrats are falling all over themselves suggesting increases in the 6.2% Social Security tax -- one of the biggest levies borne by middle-class taxpayers. At a Dartmouth College debate Wednesday night, Sens. Barack Obama, Joseph Biden and Christopher Dodd, and Rep. Dennis Kucinich, all wanted the tax applied to a larger share of Americans' incomes.
But the front-runner, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, wouldn't answer the question, saying she's "not putting anything on the proverbial table." Like her husband, she's shrewdly keeping her mouth shut about the pain until after Election Day.
Social Security, a program hurtling toward bankruptcy, is not in need of new taxes, but new thinking. As former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (not yet a presidential candidate) advises, it should be "taken away from the politicians so the younger generation can rely on it." They need the option of having a personal account "that they can invest to get a bigger retirement income."
Other fiscally doomed entitlements, such as Medicare, are also in need of innovative solutions. The Democrats' tired old ideas -- more taxes and new spending -- are not the answers.
