By Paul Kengor on 12.14.12 @ 6:09AM
Tax increases are its lifeblood, which is why Republican must just say no.
Here’s why Republicans must resist tax increases: Increased tax revenue gives Obama and liberal Democrats more government money to grow their government class, the same class they hope will keep Republicans out of the White House for generations to come. If Republicans submit to Obama’s push for tax increases, and thus further feed the beast — that is, subsidize the growing government class — then they will be purchasing their own noose, paying for their own political destruction.
Recently at The American Spectator, I wrote about this new government class. It is being nurtured by the vision and policies and programs of President Obama and his fellow “progressives”/liberals. The current class — the one that re-elected Obama — is comprised of federal employees; of state, county, and municipal workers; of dues-payers in public-sector unions like SEIU and AFSCME; of the teachers’ class and its ringleaders at the NEA and AFT; of Americans collecting food stamps, welfare, and unemployment; of those looking to government for healthcare; and much more. Unbelievably, there is even the surreal spectacle of a rising group of easily agitated young women demanding that Uncle Sam (i.e., taxpayers) pay for their contraception and abortions.
This new breed of American constitutes a huge segment of the population (and voters) who are becoming not merely dependent upon government but dependent upon Democrats. The more dependent they become, the more their dependency redounds to the political enshrinement of liberal politicians.
Worse, this class of progressive citizens — basically, Democrat constituencies — is accelerating at breakneck speed. They were already clipping along under the last 100 years of progressivism/liberalism — a symptom of what Ronald Reagan called “creeping socialism.” Under Barack Obama, however, they are exploding. There are an unprecedented 48 million Americans on food stamps, up from 32 million at the start of Obama’s presidency. Welfare rolls are bursting. Real unemployment is 15% and rising, and will get far worse as Obamacare kicks in.
The only genuine job growth is in government, where one in seven Americans is now employed, and with extraordinary benefits. A staggering 73% of all job growth in the last five months occurred in government, and Obama is adding 103 new federal employees per day. They are paid by your tax dollars. The Democrats need more of those tax dollars to maintain these voters.
Thus, the hidden, trillion-dollar question facing America right now is whether Republicans will give Democrats the tax increases they need to sustain this devoutly growing base of dependents and voters.
For Republicans, that question is a matter of political life and death. Consider: How long do we have before this growing government class out-votes the rest of America? We may be too late already. By 2016, the number of Americans employed and unionized by government or dependent or looking to Washington for food stamps, welfare, unemployment, contraception, and, most dramatic of all, healthcare, could be overwhelming. Democratic Party demagogues will easily dupe them into believing that these benefits are their Obama-given natural right — the new “natural rights” of the new government class — and that any politician (i.e., conservative Republican) arguing otherwise is a gargoyle, favoring everything from a war on women to a war on the poor.
For Democrats, this is a political coup not only for their overall popular vote every four years but Electoral College votes. For example, these new additions to the government class will particularly populate Northern Virginia, potentially turning Virginia (politically) into another Maryland, a state which gratefully pulls the lever for Democrat caretakers every four years. In fact, with the current rate of growth of the new government class, Republicans might never win Virginia again.
But back to the central point: What feeds this beast? Where does Obama’s Leviathan get its sustenance? The answer: it lives off the very tax revenues that Barack Obama and his fellow band of “progressives,” liberals, and servile Democrats now demand from John Boehner and Republicans. If Republicans give in, then they are dupes — Obama’s useful idiots.
Yes, yes, I know. The pressure inside the Beltway is immense. The liberal media is screaming at Boehner and the GOP. But most liberals in the media are themselves dupes to this fundamental transformation — to the long march of the extreme left. They’re not thoughtful, and don’t really think about this stuff hard enough to understand it; they’re ignorant of the underlying currents and deeper forces at work. They simply like Obama, for various assorted reasons, and basically blithely go along with what he and his fellow travelers want.
Granted, Republicans are in a difficult spot — I suppose. (They need what Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher had: thick skin and a willingness to shrug off the leftist mob.) But they’ll be in a really difficult spot four years from now, and forty years from now. Politically, they’ll be dead — if they permit liberals to keep feeding the beast.
Republicans are worried about losing future elections by losing their base if they cave on taxes. Actually, it’s much worse than that. Not only would they lose their base but they would dramatically strengthen their opposition by subsidizing its growth and its power.
Tax increases are the lifeblood of Barack Obama’s new government class. If Republicans provide them, they will be buying their own self-destruction. Obama and his “progressive” pals will laugh all the way to the White House for years to come.
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To read another article by Paul Kengor, click here.
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