Monday, July 20, 2009

Law of Unintended Consequences

Today Politico offers the public a breathless interview of Nancy Pelosi’s most exciting work ever. The pinnacle of her career will be successfully pushing Obamacare through the House. To do this, she, Robert Reich, Charlie Rangel, and other Democrat leaders gleefully insist that only millionaires will be taxed and surcharged, but everyone will benefit from their forced largesse.

There are several problems with Democrats playing Robin Hood with taxes beside the lack of morality in their tactics – forced compassion is still stealing, no matter how devious the public relations surrounding the program. One, which FairKaye has mentioned several times, is that estimates of costs ALWAYS turn out to be at least double or triple original forecasts. When that happens, invariably bureaucrats begin cutting back on benefits rather than cutting back on bureaucracy or systemic problems that were left unaddressed from the beginning. To corroborate this, just review the sad history of Social Security, Medicare, the War on Poverty, or other long-standing government programs.

But one problem that is seldom mentioned is that when “millionaires” are taxed more highly, the cost of consumer products invariably increases. Thus, even those who pay no income taxes, share the pain with the millionaires. True, some of these millionaires are parasites, living off of inherited wealth, but most millionaires function as the economic engines of our country, creating jobs, goods, and wealth for the rest of us. They are NOT the enemy.

Politicians who lie, cheat, and steal are our enemies. And we have far too many enemies in federal, state, and local governments. It’s time for average Americans to participate in our government from voting, to signing petitions, to calling Congressional Clowns, to attending neighborhood and PTA meetings.

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