A perennial piece of advice (and especially during the Christmas season) is to spend within your means, as Wilkins Micawber advised David Copperfield in the Charles Dickens story of 1850:
“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.”
Charles Dickens, “David Copperfield”, 1849, English novelist (1812 – 1870)
The painfully obvious way to heed this advice is to reduce spending – something you’ve got more direct control of – rather than increase income.
Unfortunately, if history’s any indication, it’s a lesson seemingly lost on some Democrats who must believe every day’s Christmas and they’re Santa Claus: Consider the following “Budget Deficeit Timeline” – thoughtfully adorned in the red and green of the season – and see if you agree:
| 1982 | “In 1982, [Republican President Ronald] Reagan agreed to increase some excise taxes on a promise from [Democrat] House Speaker Tip O’Neill that every dollar increase in tax revenue would be matched by 3 dollars in spending cuts. Famously, O’Neill reneged.”
Source: “How Reagan Was Compromised“, Richard Grant, 9/02/2012, Forbes.com |
| 1990 | “In 1990, President George H. W. Bush was promised [by Democrats] two dollars in spending cuts for every one dollar in tax hikes. He fell for the bait and violated his Pledge to not raise taxes. After a $137 billion tax hike, spending actually rose by $22 billion.” Source: “Reminder: President George H. W. Bush Regretted Raising Taxes“, Paul Blair, 07/13/2012, Americans for Tax Reform |
| 1992-2000 | “In his eight years as President, Clinton reduced federal spending to 18.2 percent of GDP from 22.1 percent, thanks in large part to a Republican-controlled Congress that forced the issue…The real debate over deficits…[is] how to get back to Clinton-era spending levels, and then create a tax system that will adequately fund it.” Source: “Clinton’s Spending Cuts—Not His Tax Hikes—Worked“, Edward Morrissey, The Fiscal Times, 12/05/2012 |
| 1945-2013 | “What both the statistical tables in the “Economic Report of the President” [page 411, see here] and the graphs in Investor’s Business Daily show is that (1) tax revenues went up — not down — after tax rates were cut during the Bush administration, and (2) the budget deficit declined, year after year, after the cut in tax rates that have been blamed by Obama for increasing the deficit.” Source: “Revenue was up under Bush tax cuts“, Thomas Sowell, The Columbus Dispatch, 12/04/2012 |
| 2012 | “…[President Obama] is proposing at least $1.20 of tax increases for every dollar of proposed spending cuts. The President’s [2013] budget locks in historically high spending levels and relies more on tax increases than spending cuts for the limited deficit reduction it proposes.” Source: “The ratio of spending cuts to tax increases in the President’s budget“, Keith Hennessey, keithhennessey.com, 02/13/2012 |
Are we once again on the verge of believing Democrats are going to give taxpayers exactly what they want for Xmas? Heck, the Democrats aren’t even willing to give us coal.
Frankly, I’d rather believe in Santa Claus.
“Hell is truth seen too late – duty neglected in its season”
- Tryon Edwards, Theologian (1809-1894)
Update 12-31-12: “$1.20 of tax increases for each dollar of proposed spending cuts”? Try $41.00 of tax increases for each dollar of spending cuts! Think any of this new revenue will go to deficit reduction?
Update 01-03-13: “We [Republicans] gave a $1.2 trillion debt-ceiling increase for $1.2 trillion in cuts [by Democrats], and we aren’t even getting those cuts.” – Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL)
Thanks for reading!
