In her latest Charlotte’s Web column, Charlotte Hays examines the consequences of the proposed Rangel tax hike:
If the Rangel tax hike were enacted into law, government spending would skyrocket. Pay-go would become very go-go. I don’t have a crystal ball, but I am going out on a limb here and predicting that, if the Democrats control the White House and both houses of Congress, the Bush tax cuts will be repealed. With go-go spending, and projects that those in power deem worthy, there won’t be enough money to do all these good things. There will be only one thing to do: increase taxes on people who haven’t yet been hit by the Rangel hike. So those who breathe a sigh of relief that we won’t have to cough up more than a few hundred dollars, are living in a fool’s paradise. We will-and it won’t be that far off.
Flush with cash (at least until the economy is chocked by high taxes), the government will spend recklessly. My least favorite programs are the entitlement programs that create a permanent underclass. The number of these programs will grow exponentially, and the number of people injured for generations will rise. It is not just to force self-reliant taxpayers to fund the indigence and, worse, the moral destruction of others.
When taxpayers are allowed to keep their earnings, they fund charities that they approve. These charities, if they have oversight and time limitations, can be far more effective than crippling entitlement programs.
Read her column here.