Tax Increases will Decrease America’s Exceptionalism

Personal Freedom and Power 101:  Personal Power

The distinctive principle of Western social philosophy is individualism.

It aims at the creation of a sphere in which the individual is free to think, to

choose, and to act without being restrained by the interference of the social apparatus of coercion and oppression, the State. All the spiritual and material achievements of Western civilization were the result of the operation of this idea of liberty.

 Ludwig von Mises

 

Tax Increases will Decrease America’s Exceptionalism

America’s federal government is spending 25% of GDP.  The historical average was 18%.  President Obama is now demanding tax increases.  Senator Conrad (D), the chair of the Senatorial Budget Committee, suggests revenue increases of $2 tillion.

Why does Obama want tax increases?  To finance and impose his agenda on the American people – the new healthcare law, environmental regulations and green energy as well as to continue the welfare state.  Daniel Henningner, in the Wall Street Journal, reports:  

 The U.S.’s projected long-term welfare costs, including the new health-care law, are the justification the Obama economists give for pushing spending to 25% or more of GDP. The tax increase the president is … shrieking for this week isn’t for the August debt limit. It’s for the next 25 years.

Failing to convince Americans of the worthiness of his policies, Obama is using the debt-ceiling debate to extract tax increases.  As Henninger notes, these taxes are not intended to pay down the debt.  They are permanent taxes to pay for Obama’s design for America.

With increased taxes, Americans will have a lower GDP and disposable income.  Robert Lucas, the 1995 Nobel Laureate in Economics, opines that higher taxes in Europe beginning in the 1970’s caused a 30% drop in GDP per person as compared to America.

The increased spending and taxes will reduce freedom and creativity in America.  Taxes away money, opportunity and innovation from the American people.   Worse, government will have more power to plan and control our lives.

America was exceptional in the 20th Century, because every American had the opportunity to save, invest, invent and exchange ideas and products.  The reduction in economic and personal choice will, as Henninger wrote, “siphon away…America’s relentless productive vitality.”  Or as Lucas states:  “So much new happens in the United States.”