By Douglas V. Gibbs
Rumblings are rising from the ranks of the lame duck Democrats. The purveyors of out-of-control federal spending have suddenly become champions of decreasing the deficit, and they plan to do this by increasing federal revenue. That's right, they won't decrease spending, they instead wish to increase federal revenue, which means more money out of your pockets, your children's pockets, and your grandchildren's pockets.
The fact is, our incredible deficit is not the result of low revenues. The monstrous national deficit is the result of too much spending. So, if we understand that this is a spending problem, not a revenue problem, why do we even consider the premise that the best solutions for our incredibly high deficit must be tax hikes, and the elimination of tax breaks like the mortgage interest deduction? If the problem is an unacceptable level of spending, shouldn't we be working to reform, and ultimately eradicate, government programs that aren't even constitutional in the first place? Besides, revenue does not increase with tax increases. More often than not, the opposite is true.
For example, if the federal government was to eliminate the mortgage interest deduction, it would remove one of the primary incentives for owning a home. People don't trust that the value of their investment will increase by much considering the current market, and many have been burned or are currently underwater (or have seen their friends and family in that situation). On top of that, many families are surviving largely because of the tax break they get as a result of the mortgage interest deduction on their income taxes. Eliminating the deduction in the hopes of increasing revenue will discourage home buying, and in the long run the economy will suffer even more in the long run.
The Democrats have realized that part of the reason for the pounding they received by conservatives on Election Day is because of our multi-trillion dollar deficit, which has been primarily fueled by Democrat Party policies. The Democrats have projected that by 2020 the growth of the national deficit will be $7.7 trillion. And they think it's a revenue problem!
In 2007, under George W. Bush, and the Republican Congress (who were accused of spending too much by the Democrats before the election of 2008) our federal budget deficit was just $161 billion. Now, these idiots have a multi-trillion dollar debt, and they are patting themselves on the backs for deciding to try to increase revenue by confiscating more money away from the populace. And if they do it by eliminating the mortgage interest deduction, the primary people affected will be the Middle Class. And then, we are supposed to trust these spendaholics to not increase spending, or cry for even more of our money through more excessive taxation.
The Democrat Party's time is limited, with that recent election sweeping the Republicans into power in the House of Representatives, and in a couple years a completion of the takeover of the U.S. Senate, and a regain of the White House, in 2012. The Democrats have precious little time to slam more of their Marxist policies into place. They claim the reason for trying to place all of these policies into place is to increase revenue, or to reduce the deficit, but in reality, there is an even more sinister ploy in play.
Now that President Obama and his merry gang of Congressional idiots have succeeded in ballooning the national debt to levels never conceived possible in our wildest nightmares, under the guise of becoming champions of bringing down the massive multi-trillion dollar deficit they have come up with a list of ways to increase revenue.
In reality, the progressive's attempt to confiscate more of our private wealth is not so that they can control the national debt. The strategies, like eliminating the mortgage interest deduction, actually have little to do with their hopes to increase revenue. Remember, these people are leftists, meaning that their perceived ideal system of governance is backed by the forces of socialism, collectivism, and tyranny. The Democrats are driven by the desire of an ever-expanding governmental bureaucracy, which includes destroying our system of morals, an emasculation of our system of law and order, an undermining of our nation's spirit of patriotism, and the systematic effort to weaken our nation's economic prowess.
To accomplish their collectivist goals, liberalism must eradicate individuality. They are doing this by destroying incentive, and confiscating wealth and property. Progressive income tax rates have reached incredible confiscatory levels, and if you are an achiever they want to take even more from you, claiming that you are not paying your fair share (regardless of the fact that the majority of the federal revenue already comes from the wealthiest Americans).
Included in their systematic endeavor to destroy our financial system (a free market system, by the way, that supports individual freedoms better than any other system devised) is an estate tax code that severely limits one's freedom to transfer wealth to future generations. Our entire capitalistic system is based on economic freedom and market economies, and that wonderful system that has brought this nation economic prosperity and individual freedoms is undergirded by the very cornerstone of capitalism, the ownership of private property by its citizens.
To eliminate the mortgage interest deduction would be to discourage the ownership of private property for some Americans - and of course the elimination of the private ownership of property is coincidentally also one of the tenets of the communist manifesto. Hmmm, do you think the liberal Democrats realize how much in common they have with Karl Marx?
We already have a tax code that is designed to destroy nearly all incentive to generate wealth. It is not surprising to see the progressive/liberal/leftist/socialist/communist Democrats turning against the ownership of private property. By merely suggesting eliminating the mortgage interest deduction they place the very concept of private property ownership in some real danger in this country. Karl Marx would be proud of the Democrats, and their attempt to change America at its very foundations into a communist nation without as much as a whimper from the populace.
Correction: The Democrats "hope" they can "change" the foundations of this nation without as much as a whimper from the people . . . They were caught off guard by the "roar" of the people on November 2nd, and now feel the need to slam as much of their Marxist nightmare into place as they can during the next couple months.
What the Republicans in Congress need to do is begin working to repeal everything that the Democrats have put into place. Let Obama veto it all - that will be a message sent that he owns the failed policies. And if the House proposes a bill, and if my belief that enough Democrats would jump on board to push the bill through the Senate is false, then let it die in the Senate by the hands of the Democrats. Let them try to fight against the Republicans, and defend their idiotic policies. One of two things will happen if they defend their idiocy. Either eventually enough of them will give in and the repeals will go through, or it will further anger the populace because the Democrats will continue to show that they reject the will of the people and it will result in Republican control of the Senate and White House in 2012.
Once in control, to save this nation from the economic brink liberal policies have led us to, the GOP would then need to either eliminate the existence of the IRS by initiating a low rate flat tax, or by reducing marginal income tax rates and eventually lowering the highest rate to below 30%. They also need to eliminate the estate tax, which by its very existence is a double-taxation; while also greatly reducing any penalties of making gifts to heirs. These moves alone would be incredibly successful in protecting private property, and capitalism, while once again moving us in the direction of being the economic and military world superpower we are accustomed to being.
In order to accomplish these feats, the Republicans can't be the same establishment idiots they have been in the past. They need to stand up to liberalism, challenge the progressives to defend their policies, and refuse to cooperate with any leftist policies whatsoever - not because they are the policies of the other party, but because they are policies that are destructive to this nation!
The GOP will need to exhibit a vision and leadership of conservatism, while reminding Americans that this is a nation that has prospered because of the policies of the U.S. Constitution, and conservative ideas. Conservatism in practice is not bereft of compassion, but believes that all classes in society should have the opportunity to better themselves, and that once they have become achievers, that they would not be punished for that achievement with punitive taxation. All Americans, regardless of who they are, should benefit from opportunities with fewer governmental regulations and taxes because we are not a bunch of groups as the Democrats like to classify us as, but because we are all Americans.
Understand, the battle to turn this country around will also be difficult because as Conservatives regain their rightful place in government, the progressives will do as they always do, accuse without evidence, spread disinformation, personally attack the political achievers of the GOP, and spread their usual blend of cacophonous and disjointed hysteria. They will hate and despise us worse than they did George W. Bush, because that is what they do. They cannot win in the arena of ideas, so they resort to those kinds of tactics - and the attacks will increase with each increase of power to conservatives in the government.
Remember, they are idiots, they are liars, and they are destructive to the future of this nation.
We've been here before. Ronald Reagan received those attacks, but he pushed his conservative policies, and the result was the longest sustained economic boom in modern history. His presidency invalidated everything liberals stand for, believe in, and push as policies. Reagan proved that every cornerstone of liberalism is wrong. The liberals can't afford for the people understand this, so they will pull out all the stops to defeat a conservative GOP over the next two years, and in 2012. You see, as long as the people remain ignorant to the damage liberalism causes, they can slowly move themselves back into position.
This conservative revolution must be more than turning this nation around - it must also educate the masses of the destructive nature of progressivism/liberalism/socialism/the Democrat Party. If we succeed in that, the Democrat Party will fade into history, becoming a mere footnote on what not to do.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
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