Democrats Mean to Raise Middle Class Taxes in 2011

J.D. Foster / July 08, 2010

Imagine a Congress running in a tough environment—the electorate is angry; a war is going badly; the unemployment rate remains stubbornly high. And imagine such a Congress facing the prospect of passing a nice, pre-election tax cut for all. They’d pass the tax cut faster than Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D–CA) can say “Ronald Reagan.”

Suppose instead of passing a tax cut, Congress faced the even more compelling prospect of preventing the largest tax hike the middle class has ever seen. Hitting the middle class with tax hikes is a prescription for political oblivion. Under normal circumstances such a bill would likely pass the House and Senate unanimously, accompanied with enough lofty oration to launch a zeppelin.

Yet facing exactly this prospect with the expiration of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts at the end of this year, the Democratic leadership in Congress says it intends to wait until after the election to prevent the tax hikes. Why is that? They feign it is because they await the Obama Fiscal Commission report. When will that be? Conveniently, after the election. (more…)