Tax squabble puts America at a crossroads

By Chris Adamo

The unprecedented power of this year's conservative groundswell has placed Washington liberals completely on the defensive, which is a fate they never expected. It was barely two years ago that the future was seemingly in their hands. Now they must navigate an incredibly difficult course in order to maintain any political viability whatsoever. And if Republicans remain firm and on message, the left may be steered inexorably towards a no win situation.

Consider their unenviable position. Disturbing though the notion may be, America is already in the early phases of the 2012 presidential campaign, and everything that happens inside the Beltway must be analyzed from that perspective. At such an inauspicious time, the entire liberal/Democrat house of cards is collapsing around them.

The American economy is on life-support, and showing no tangible signs of improvement, despite nearly two years of media prognostications of an impending "recovery" every few weeks. And in an unbelievable twist of fate that could not have been timed more poorly for Democrat political fortunes, the tax cuts implemented by George W. Bush early in his presidency are scheduled to expire at the end of this year. Democrats may wish in vain that they could simply ignore the situation, as they did with this year's federal budget, punting until after the mid-term elections. Yet they have no such option. If no action is taken, America will be hit with a major tax increase that could deal a deathblow to this struggling economy.

On the other hand, their entire Keynesian liberal economic philosophy is predicated on the concept that money, under the supervision of government, can be effectively channeled and directed to the proper recipients in a manner that will sustain and grow a nation's economy. Of course this theory has always proven a complete disaster, and America is in the midst of presenting more dismal evidence of the same. Nevertheless, leftists continue to insist that if a government would only pour enough of a nation's wealth down such a sinkhole, something wonderful will miraculously ensue.

In this manner, the Obama/Reid/Pelosi cabal has pillaged and squandered trillions of dollars in the past two years, always promising that a rosy economic upturn is right around the next corner. And when no economic rebound resulted, they assured us that with only a few more billion thrown cavalierly about, the recovery would indeed begin. To the dismay of these political charlatans, the American people saw through the sham and resoundingly rejected it in the November elections.

As a result, and with the 2012 election cycle looming, any new evidence of more economic gloom will be disastrous to their political fortunes. Yet equally appalling to them is the prospect of the implementation of sound tax policy, followed by even a small degree recuperation from the disastrous course of the past few years. Better economic times will only benefit the Democrats if they can credibly take responsibility for the upturn. And prosperity through lowered taxes (Or more accurately, merely maintaining the current levels in lieu of sharply raising them) is not a concept that the Democrats have ever convincingly embraced.

Thus, even at this late hour, they continue to cloud and complicate the issue with their standard leftist diatribe. In her waning days as House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi (D.-CA) has repeatedly made the absurd claim that a continuation of unemployment "benefits" (a likely component of any compromise bill to maintain the Bush tax cuts) will stimulate the economy. Though the last hundred weeks of such lavish expenditures has not accomplished anything of the kind, but instead only significantly worsened the debt component of the sluggish economy.

Barack Obama consistently disparaged the notion of allowing "the wealthy" (Meaning those who earn over two hundred fifty thousand dollars) to escape the tax hike. In his world, that such individuals "would still buy their flat screen televisions" even while facing higher taxes incontrovertibly proves that they do not need all of their income. Ultimately, he is asserting that people who have earned in abundance have no legitimate right to keep the fruits of their work.

What Obama does not explain, and what he obviously believes the American people are too stupid to comprehend, is that while upper income individuals and companies may maintain the means to make a comparatively small expenditure of that nature, their ability to expand business will definitely be impacted by higher taxes. The end result of this is continued contraction of the market and the economy.

Conversely, a cease-fire in the liberal war on American affluence would set the stage for a much-needed economic revitalization, not because of government but in spite of it. And this is a prospect that Democrats revile more than any other, with the lone exception of losing more seats in Congress, and possibly the White House in 2012. This quandary has left them frustrated and desperate. So now they are compelled to make a case that some Keynesian baggage that they can attach to the tax-rate extension bill will be the real reason for any economic rebound.

With each passing day, it seems more likely that all of the Bush tax cuts will be preserved. On the heels of this, America may indeed take a first step towards repairing the damage inflicted by Pelosi, Reid, and eventually, Obama. If so, the message of how and why the country was able to turn around must be touted relentlessly in order to counter the misinformation campaign that is sure to follow.

The alternative is that during the next two years the left will resurrect itself on the false premise that its nanny state policies fixed the crisis, placing it in a position to restore its political hegemony and revert back to the dangerous policies that have devastated the nation since the Democrats retook the Congress in 2007.

© Chris Adamo