No new taxes returns

or

It looks like the no-new-taxes pledge has won.

For example, in the Boston Globe (which knows a little something about Romney's term in office), Scott Helman notes that Romney didn't think much of the pledge back when he was governor, which is a bit odd considering that he now points to his term in office to support the pledge he took on Tuesday.

The Americans for Tax Reform pledge states I ,____________, pledge to the taxpayers of the _____ district of the State of _________ and to the American People that I will:
ONE, oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses; and
TWO, oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.

Nothing there, of course, about fees.

On the evening Mitt Romney was elected governor, though, another compelling story was how close to a majority -- 5 points -- the Small Government Act question (no income tax) came. No new taxes? The voters had a different idea: no old taxes either

That prompted Michael New of the Cato Institute to call for a new tax reforming strategy, because these sorts of "no tax" initiatives (and pledges) inevitably lead to... more fees..

The no-new-taxes strategy, of course, comes because there's no no-new-spending strategy. The theory is if you choke off the food, the beast will die. Only it doesn't. Bonding, borrowing, and fees create plenty of sustenance.

For a candidate, however, it's difficult to talk about cutting spending in specific terms, because specifics is where you lose votes.

Comments (1)

Bob keeps referring to "the fees," as if that were the big glitch in the "no new taxes" scam. It's not. That's just one part of the scam.

The way that part of the scam works is "no new taxes--but raise fees, and charge new fees for public services that used to be covered by taxes." (In Stillwater, where I live, the no new taxes types tried to charge fees to families for public school bus transportation. It didn't fly, and the conservatives on te local school board had to retreat.)

But there are other aspects to the "no new taxes scam." One is the one that Pawlenty pulled when he got into office. The cuts to local government aid (LGA) provided by the state to local governments help to keep state taxes down--which benefits the wealthiest individuals. But it stinks for the middle class--it leads to property tax hikes, which we have seen since that part of the "no new taxes" scam went into effect.

Finally, Bob refers to the "bonding and borrowing." This is my favorite part of the "no new taxes" scam. Because public bonding and borrowing is: taxes! For some reason, it doesn't count with the voters as taxes, but if a government is borrowing and charging to your account--and you have to pay it back--that *is* taxation.

And here's where the "they're liars" part comes in. Conservative policy groups like the Taxpayers' League and the Club for Growth and the Cato Institute (mentioned by Bob) know that borrowing from the public and deficit spending is taxation. But for years they have been supporting conservative GOP politicians who do exactly that. That's what makes the scam "a scam"--they know that they are raising your taxes, while they have been going around saying your taxes have been cut.

Posted by Bill Prendergast | October 11, 2007 6:49 PM