Raise Taxes - Lose Congress

Common sense is apparently an oxymoron in Washington. Time and time again we have seen control of Congress pass back and forth between the major political parties. Politicians from every party seem to be infected with an incurable need to prove the axiom that “power corrupts”. We have watched one politician after another get elected promising us hope, change and open, honest government –only to see them corrupted by greed, corporate influences and/or ideological extremism.

Surprisingly, we generally tolerate all this nonsense. We take note and get angry and then move right on to the next outrage before the first one is properly punished. We repeatedly talk about voting the corruption out of office by getting rid of the incumbents and then we go to the voting both and choose the candidate with the most experience, usually the same incumbents.

While this little scene is played out over and over, there is one thing that seems to result in real change. There is one common thread connecting each time control of the Congress passes from one political party to another -Taxes. The one thing that gets the average American voter angry enough to remember the name of the politicians we do not want to vote for is when they raise our taxes.

Politicians seem to be able to get away with accepting “favors” from lobbyists, making back room deals, moral indiscretion and passing restrictive or just plain crazy pieces of legislation. Americans tolerate an incredible amount of just plain bad behavior. What they won’t tolerate is taking away their hard earned money with higher and higher taxes.

It is not hard to find examples of this 'changing of power' in our history. The “Tea Party” movement so prevalent on today’s political scene finds it roots in the original “Tea Party”, which was a protest to taxes (those taxes, by-the-way, were imposed by Great Britain in an effort to recover the cost of having the British Army protect the colonies during the French and Indian War). Ever since the founding of our country each time you see the control of Congress passing between the parties, you can find where the one losing control has been raising or attempting to raise taxes and the one getting elected is promising to cut taxes.

The leaders of the Republican and Democrat Parties know this lesson but for some reason they seem doomed to forget it every time they actually get elected. Someday maybe that will change, but don’t count on it.

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