Feeling that the recent GOP wave election might require an innovative sales pitch to win back the American people, one top Democrat is thinking “big” when it comes to tax reform. Representative Chris Van Hollen (D – People’s Republic of Maryland) previewed his plan to recapture the hearts of the American middle class. According to the Washington Examiner:
One top Democrat is responding to his party’s minority status with an aggressive plan to transfer income to the middle class… The plan would transfer over $1.2 trillion to the middle class over the course of 10 years, according to the Maryland congressman.
I’m giving serious consideration to suing “progressives” for falsely labeling their movement. They’ve been proposing new ways to “redistribute” wealth for over a century… Can we move on something new already? Democrats (and some Republicans) have been peddling this kind of Robin Hood wealth distribution for much of the last century. Since the introduction of the 16th Amendment, progressive politicians have turned pitting the classes against each other into an art form. Karl Marx would, undoubtedly, be pretty impressed. (And don’t yell at me for being melodramatic… I read Karl’s book. He would be impressed.)
And how would the congressman wage this crusade for wealth redistribution?
…by raising taxes on high earners and imposing a new tax on financial transactions.
Heck, let’s just call the proposal the “ElizabethWarrenBarrackObama” tax plan. Certainly Van Hollen doesn’t think this is anything groundbreaking or new, does he?
Van Hollen said that action along the lines of his recommendation was necessary because Democrats to this point have not fully grappled with the policy changes needed to reverse the economic forces squeezing middle class families.
Oh... So he does seem to think that he’s being creative. Poor guy. (Doesn’t he realize that he works with a bunch of lawyers? He’s likely to get sued for plagiarism if he’s not careful.)
After the American people elected small-government Republicans en masse to the US Capitol, the way for Dems to win back the average voter is (apparently) by doubling down on Obamanomics. I’d like to say something snarky about this resembling the clinical definition of insanity, but it has actually proven fairly effective over the course of the last century. The politics of envy, as it turns out, tend to be fairly effective political tools. And given that the Maryland Democrat’s Warren-esque tax proposal will go nowhere in a Republican controlled congress, it’s pretty safe to assume this is less about “helping the middle class” and more about setting a narrative for 2016.
That’s not to say he doesn’t actually believe in the healing powers of his own product. Given the opportunity, our Leftist tax crusader (who is acting so 20th Century) would be more than happy to add to the massive redistributive Rube Goldberg machine known as the US Tax Code. (My apologies to Rube Goldberg… His machines actually worked.)
So, brace yourself for a slew of Obama’s early teleprompter scripts repurposed as serious tax-policy proposals from the minority party in Congress. Because, as Van Hollen is demonstrating, you can always count on a “progressive” to recycle their failed ideas.