Bored with the Penn State scandal because it didnt implicate any prominent Republicans the mainstream media have suddenly become obsessed with Grover Norquists Taxpayer Protection Pledge. They are monomaniacally fixated on luring Republicans into raising taxes.
If Democrats could balance the budget tomorrow and quadruple government spending theyd refuse the deal unless they could also make Republicans break their tax pledge. That is their single-minded goal.
But the media are trying to turn it around and say that its Republicans who are crazy for refusing to consider raising taxes no matter how much they get in spending cuts.
At Tuesday nights Republican presidential debate on foreign policy for example CNNs Wolf Blitzer asked the candidates for the one-millionth time if they would agree to raise taxes in exchange for spending cuts 10 times larger than the tax hikes.
Terrorism can wait -- first let me try to back you into a corner on raising taxes.
Amazingly Blitzer cited Ronald Reagans statement in his autobiography An American Life that he would happily compromise with Democrats if he could get 75 or 80 percent of what he wanted -- implying that todays Republicans were nuttier than Reagan if theyd refuse a dollar in tax hikes for $10 in spending cuts.
Wolf should have kept reading. As Reagan explains a little farther in his autobiography: He did accept tax hikes in return for (the Democrats) agreement to cut spending by $280 billion but Reagan continues the Democrats reneged on their pledge and we never got those cuts.
Maybe thats why Republicans wont agree to raise taxes in exchange for Democratic promises to cut spending.
For Americans who are unaware of the Democrats history of repeatedly reneging on their promises to cut spending in return for tax hikes the Republicans opposition to tax increases does seem crazy. Thats why Republicans need to remind them.
From the moment President Reagan succeeded in pushing through his historic tax cuts in 1981 -- which passed by a vote of 323-107 in the House and 89-11 in the Senate despite Democrats subsequent caterwauling -- he came under fantastic pressure to raise taxes from the media and the Democrats.
You will notice it is the same culprits pushing for tax hikes today.
So in 1982 Reagan struck a deal with the Democrats to raise some business and excise taxes -- though not income taxes -- in exchange for $280 billion in spending cuts over the next six years. As Reagan wrote in his diary at the time: The tax increase is the price we have to pay to get the budget cuts.
But of course the Democrats were lying. Instead of cutting $280 billion they spent an additional $450 billion -- only $140 billion of which went to the Reagan defense buildup that ended the Evil Empire.
Meanwhile Reagans tax cuts brought in an extra $375 billion in government revenue in the next six years -- as that amiable simple-minded dunce Reagan always said they would. His tax cuts funded the entire $140 billion defense buildup with $235 billion left over.
If Democrats had lied only a little and merely held spending at the same level Reagan could have smashed the Russkies produced the largest peacetime expansion in U.S. history with his tax cuts and produced a $235 billion budget surplus. (Jobs created in September 1983: 1.1 million; jobs created in September 2011: 150000.)
But the Democrats not only refused to implement any budget cuts they hiked government spending. To the untrained eye that appears to be the exact opposite of cutting the budget.
Even the gusher of revenue brought in by Reagans tax cuts couldnt pay for all the additional spending piled up by double-crossing Democrats -- more than twice as much as Reagans spending on defense.
Reagans defense spending crushed the Soviet war machine. What did Tip ONeills domestic spending accomplish? (I mean besides destroying the black family increasing single motherhood and creating government bureaucracies that can never be eliminated.)
Unable to learn from the first kick of a mule President George H.W. Bush made the exact same deal with Democrats just a few years later.
Pretending to care about the deficit -- created exclusively by their own profligate spending -- Democrats demanded that Bush agree to a balanced budget package with both spending cuts and tax increases.
In June 1990 Bush did so agreeing to tax hikes in defiance of his read-my-lips no-new-taxes campaign pledge.
Again Democrats being Democrats produced no spending cuts and within two years the increased federal spending had led to a doubling of the deficit.
The Democrats didnt care: All that mattered was that they had tricked Bush into breaking his tax pledge which they celebrated all the way to Bushs defeat in the next election.
On CNNs Crossfire then-congressman Charles Schumer D-N.Y. gloated: All the spin control in the world cant undo the fact that the president is moving away from (no new) taxes.
An article on the front page of The New York Times proclaimed that with his three words (tax revenue increases) Mr. Bush had broken the central promise of his 1988 campaign.
As the next presidential campaign got under way CNN interviewed a Reagan Democrat who said: Bush says Read my lips. Remember when he said that? We got taxes anyway. Clinton says I will raise your taxes because we have to do something about that national debt.
Democrats had effectively taken away the Republican Partys central defining issue -- low taxes -- and the Republicans got nothing in return.
(I take that back: We got a stained blue dress for the Smithsonian. So an OK trade.)
On the campaign trail Bill Clinton taunted Bush for breaking his tax pledge saying He promised 15 million new jobs no new taxes the environmental president an education presidency. It was a wonderful speech. But now we dont have to read his lips; we can read his record.
Apparently Republicans can read the Democrats record too. They know that Democrats will promise to cut spending in exchange for tax increases and then screw Republicans on the spending cuts.
Its been 20 years since they pulled that scam so Democrats figure its time to make Republicans break a tax pledge again. As long as no one knows the history of these deals the media can carry on blithely portraying Republicans as obstructionist nuts for refusing the third kick of a mule.
Ann Coulter
Ann Coulter is a columnist and author of Guilty: Liberal Victims and Their Assault On America.
Bored with the Penn State scandal because it didnt implicate any prominent Republicans the mainstream media have suddenly become obsessed with Grover Norquists Taxpayer Protection Pledge. They are monomaniacally fixated on luring Republicans into raising taxes.
If Democrats could balance the budget tomorrow and quadruple government spending theyd refuse the deal unless they could also make Republicans break their tax pledge. That is their single-minded goal.
But the media are trying to turn it around and say that its Republicans who are crazy for refusing to consider raising taxes no matter how much they get in spending cuts.
At Tuesday nights Republican presidential debate on foreign policy for example CNNs Wolf Blitzer asked the candidates for the one-millionth time if they would agree to raise taxes in exchange for spending cuts 10 times larger than the tax hikes.
Terrorism can wait -- first let me try to back you into a corner on raising taxes.
Amazingly Blitzer cited Ronald Reagans statement in his autobiography An American Life that he would happily compromise with Democrats if he could get 75 or 80 percent of what he wanted -- implying that todays Republicans were nuttier than Reagan if theyd refuse a dollar in tax hikes for $10 in spending cuts.
Wolf should have kept reading. As Reagan explains a little farther in his autobiography: He did accept tax hikes in return for (the Democrats) agreement to cut spending by $280 billion but Reagan continues the Democrats reneged on their pledge and we never got those cuts.
Maybe thats why Republicans wont agree to raise taxes in exchange for Democratic promises to cut spending.
For Americans who are unaware of the Democrats history of repeatedly reneging on their promises to cut spending in return for tax hikes the Republicans opposition to tax increases does seem crazy. Thats why Republicans need to remind them.
From the moment President Reagan succeeded in pushing through his historic tax cuts in 1981 -- which passed by a vote of 323-107 in the House and 89-11 in the Senate despite Democrats subsequent caterwauling -- he came under fantastic pressure to raise taxes from the media and the Democrats.
You will notice it is the same culprits pushing for tax hikes today.
So in 1982 Reagan struck a deal with the Democrats to raise some business and excise taxes -- though not income taxes -- in exchange for $280 billion in spending cuts over the next six years. As Reagan wrote in his diary at the time: The tax increase is the price we have to pay to get the budget cuts.
But of course the Democrats were lying. Instead of cutting $280 billion they spent an additional $450 billion -- only $140 billion of which went to the Reagan defense buildup that ended the Evil Empire.
Meanwhile Reagans tax cuts brought in an extra $375 billion in government revenue in the next six years -- as that amiable simple-minded dunce Reagan always said they would. His tax cuts funded the entire $140 billion defense buildup with $235 billion left over.
If Democrats had lied only a little and merely held spending at the same level Reagan could have smashed the Russkies produced the largest peacetime expansion in U.S. history with his tax cuts and produced a $235 billion budget surplus. (Jobs created in September 1983: 1.1 million; jobs created in September 2011: 150000.)
But the Democrats not only refused to implement any budget cuts they hiked government spending. To the untrained eye that appears to be the exact opposite of cutting the budget.
Even the gusher of revenue brought in by Reagans tax cuts couldnt pay for all the additional spending piled up by double-crossing Democrats -- more than twice as much as Reagans spending on defense.
Reagans defense spending crushed the Soviet war machine. What did Tip ONeills domestic spending accomplish? (I mean besides destroying the black family increasing single motherhood and creating government bureaucracies that can never be eliminated.)
Unable to learn from the first kick of a mule President George H.W. Bush made the exact same deal with Democrats just a few years later.
Pretending to care about the deficit -- created exclusively by their own profligate spending -- Democrats demanded that Bush agree to a balanced budget package with both spending cuts and tax increases.
In June 1990 Bush did so agreeing to tax hikes in defiance of his read-my-lips no-new-taxes campaign pledge.
Again Democrats being Democrats produced no spending cuts and within two years the increased federal spending had led to a doubling of the deficit.
The Democrats didnt care: All that mattered was that they had tricked Bush into breaking his tax pledge which they celebrated all the way to Bushs defeat in the next election.
On CNNs Crossfire then-congressman Charles Schumer D-N.Y. gloated: All the spin control in the world cant undo the fact that the president is moving away from (no new) taxes.
An article on the front page of The New York Times proclaimed that with his three words (tax revenue increases) Mr. Bush had broken the central promise of his 1988 campaign.
As the next presidential campaign got under way CNN interviewed a Reagan Democrat who said: Bush says Read my lips. Remember when he said that? We got taxes anyway. Clinton says I will raise your taxes because we have to do something about that national debt.
Democrats had effectively taken away the Republican Partys central defining issue -- low taxes -- and the Republicans got nothing in return.
(I take that back: We got a stained blue dress for the Smithsonian. So an OK trade.)
On the campaign trail Bill Clinton taunted Bush for breaking his tax pledge saying He promised 15 million new jobs no new taxes the environmental president an education presidency. It was a wonderful speech. But now we dont have to read his lips; we can read his record.
Apparently Republicans can read the Democrats record too. They know that Democrats will promise to cut spending in exchange for tax increases and then screw Republicans on the spending cuts.
Its been 20 years since they pulled that scam so Democrats figure its time to make Republicans break a tax pledge again. As long as no one knows the history of these deals the media can carry on blithely portraying Republicans as obstructionist nuts for refusing the third kick of a mule.
Ann Coulter
Ann Coulter is a columnist and author of Guilty: Liberal Victims and Their Assault On America.
