WASHINGTON — What is a Republican elected official? A
Republican elected official is one who says, “I won’t raise my
constituents’ taxes.” Asked to elaborate, the Republican elected
official explains, “I will keep taxes down to allow the economy to
grow and to throw off ever more tax revenue.” The Republican
believes that the way to pay for government is to let the economy
roar… and to keep spending reasonable.
What is a Democratic elected official? Back in the early 1960s a
Democratic elected official, at least when it came to growing the
economy, was not much different from a Republican. President John
F. Kennedy called for a tax cut to fire up the economy. Things are
different now. A Democratic elected official today is a crafty pol
whose economic theories are at best muzzy-headed. The Democrats
have supposedly embraced the middle class. That is, as the
mathematician Senator Patty Murray of Washington said on National
Public Radio the other day, “98 percent” of the American people.
The Democrats promise not to raise taxes on this middle class. They
will only raise them on the top two percent, who are mostly
scoundrels anyway, and the economy will grow, and all will be
well.
One trillion dollars in budget deficits will continue for the
next four years, but everyone will be happy. Medicare will continue
to pay out. Medicaid and Social Security will continue to pay out.
All the lesser entitlement programs will flourish. If we need more
money, the Democrats will hit the upper two percent even harder.
You wondered where the goose that laid the golden egg might be?
Well, for Democrats it is to be found among that two percent. They
really believe that all America is with them, save for this fat and
lazy two percent.
Back in the days when such geniuses as President Barack Obama
held such hope for the Occupy movement — those days were not long
ago — the members of that movement and their supporters spoke of
the 98 percent of Americans that were supposedly full of hope for
the movement. Patty Murray was not the only one to speak of the
opulent two percent and the nearly desperate 98 percent. Much of
the Democratic Party did also as they embraced us, us 98 percent of
Americans who are middle class — not working class, not
upper-middle class, not working poor, or the poor. We are all
middle class, except that dratted two percent, and we shall never
have a tax increase brought down on us by the Democrats. They
promise! Yippee! And if you believe the two percent can pay off the
Prophet Obama’s twenty-trillion-dollar national debt when he leaves
office, you are an ignoramus.
Now comes upon this happy scene of Republicans holding the line
on raising taxes and of Democrats talking gibberish about their
preposterous 98 percent of Americans all luxuriating in
trillion-dollar budgetary overruns, one Grover Norquist. He is a
pleasant barbigerous man of sunny disposition given to homespun
truths such as “You can either reform government so that it spends
less and works better, or you can raise taxes to keep doing all the
things we have been doing that haven’t worked very well.”
Conservatives adore him and many independents do too. There are
many reasons to adore Grover. He is optimistic, commonsensical, a
friend to all Americans who love their freedoms as secured for them
in the Constitution. Moreover, he is adamantly opposed to tax
increases. He is the author of the tax pledge that, 20 years ago,
his organization, Americans for Tax Reform, began asking Capitol
Hill politicians to sign. Most Republicans have and by doing so
they have distinguished themselves from the Democrats of whom only
one has signed the pledge.
Once again — remember attack dog Joe Biden’s assault on him in
the vice-presidential debate? — Grover is being made out to be a
monster, a tyrant forcing congressional Republicans to stand by
their pledge not to raise taxes. Actually he has said in his
homespun vernacular, “If you want to go to your voters and say I
promised you this, and I’m breaking my promise, you can have that
conversation,” but “You’re not having an argument with me. You’ve
made a commitment to your voters.” My guess is that most
Republicans will stand by their pledge. They know opposition to tax
increases is one of the things that makes them Republicans and that
in two more years will continue the Republicans’ domination of
government.
