When the House voted to adjourn about a month ago by a 210-209 margin, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and her cronies avoided dealing with extending the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, which expire Dec. 31. Rather than address the tax issue, the Senate also voted to adjourn.
Instead, Congress is holding a lame-duck session beginning Nov. 15. What that means is whether or not you elect them back into office, they are poised to do what they want when they want with little election fallout.
Before adjournment, 47 House Democrats endorsed a letter to Pelosi pleading for the extension of all the Bush tax cuts, and 39 of them voted against adjournment. Yet the Pelosi and powerful Washington elite got their way. So we sit in levy limbo until after the elections.
Our Democratic representatives are no dummies, but they think you are. They're counting on your naivete in thinking that their meeting deferment is not a temporary delay to terminate (or ensure the expiration of) the Bush tax cuts. But that is exactly what it is. And they know that if you figured that out, it would mean bad news for their re-elections, as taxes ultimately will rise for all Americans.
The truth is President Barack Obama has called for a staggering $921 billion tax increase beginning Jan. 1, 2011. And all Congress has to do is nothing to meet his goal; just let the Bush tax cuts expire -- or at least most of them.
So if somehow you haven't heard, in about 60 days, Democrats in Washington will invoke change that will cost Americans a minimum of $3.8 trillion over the next 10 years, including the loss of the $1,000 child tax credit, if Congress allows the Bush tax cuts to expire. In practical terms, the average American family immediately will pay between $1,500 and $3,000 more per year in taxes. Thanks to the Washington think tank Tax Foundation, you can calculate exact amounts for your family by your state and congressional district via the organization's website.
You have heard, however, that President Obama promises not to raise taxes on the lower and middle classes. But contrary to his plan, most economists (including Washington's) share the conviction that the feds can't fix the economy, balance the budget, lower the national debt and deficit, or pay for out-of-control entitlements by taxing only the wealthy. Costs will trickle down to your pocketbook, as they have for years. And mark my words: Washington's promises once again will turn into lies as you are taxed next.
CBS even admonished: "Enjoy (lower taxes) while you can. With government spending projected to outpace revenues by $9 trillion over the next decade, today's low tax rates can't last, even if Congress were to find the will to cut spending. Just to eliminate this year's budget deficit, tax rates would have to be 24 to 85 percent, not today's 10 to 35 percent, according to the Tax Foundation."
Most economists agree that the 2007-08 financial meltdown was the result of a housing bubble and a credit crisis, which had their origins under Bill Clinton in the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac frenzy. Though George W. Bush made many economic mistakes, his 2001 and 2003 tax reductions led to more than 8 million new jobs in the next five years, and the unemployment rate dropped to 4.6 percent. It's not economic rocket science. Tax breaks encourage economic growth. Tax increases do not.
If elected officials aren't able to run our government without steeping our posterity in financial ruin, then they need to get out and we need to elect those who are fiscally responsible -- period. No more excuses. No more whining. No more borrowing. No more debt. No more deficits. No more taxes!
We need to elect more politicians like Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who has lowered taxes, bolstered business, developed jobs and grown the state's economy. (Over the past year, Texas has created more than half the new jobs in the nation -- 166,000 during the year ending in September, while the entire U.S. economy gained only 321,000 jobs.)
The fact is the tax man cometh for us all unless we cut him off at the pass (read: at the polls) by not electing or re-electing tax-increasing candidates.
You've been shouting it loud for months, "We will remember in November!" Now it's time to deliver. (For a voter guide detailing where candidates in your state stand on issues, go to http://www.ChristianVoterGuide.com.)
So go get 'em at the polls! And do it with the passion of Samuel Adams, the Father of the American Revolution, who said, "Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual -- or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country."
(In my next article, I will discuss dozens of other taxes being "hidden" in legislation that will be shoved down Americans' throats in the near future.)