Sixteen months ago, Democrats pushed through the largest income tax increase in Illinois history, an unpopular decision that was billed as a crucial step to put state government on the road to financial recovery.Tax increases are just throwing good money after bad unless they're accompanied by significant spending cuts, entitlement reforms, and adult budgeting.
Yet last week lawmakers made deep cuts in health care for the poor, and this week they face tough votes to raise the cigarette tax, strip away public worker pension benefits and slice spending on social services. Despite all that, the giant pile of unpaid bills that has loomed over state government for years is expected to keep growing.
So why didn't the roughly $7 billion more a year the state is collecting from that income tax hike fix Illinois' money problems?
Pension payments continue to increase dramatically each year. The same is true for health care costs as more people seek coverage during a down economy. And that stack of bills keeps rolling over from one year to the next partly because lawmakers declined to go along with Gov.Pat Quinn's request to use some of the income tax windfall to borrow to pay it off.
We in California are an inclined plane wrapped helically around a pointed cylinder--we're screwed.
If no one ever taxed themselves into prosperity, and I believe that to be the case, then why do some people insist on continuing to try?
ReplyDeleteAllen
DeleteRemember Einstein's definition of insanity.
And California continues to vote Democrat.....go figure.
ReplyDeleteMikeAT, Einstein was a physicist, a scientist. When he delivered his famous, instant cliche he was not acting as a scientist but as a sarcastic smart-ass. Therefor the observation only has utility to others who are also acting as sarcastic smart-asses since it's hardly explanatory.
ReplyDeleteUnless, that is, you actually feel being a lefty is a form mental defect. In that case I invite you to support the assertion with more then just Einstein's cliche.
Trouble is, the evidence is against you.
Lots of lefties are clearly not suffering from mental defect and are, in fact, operating exceptionally ably in society. And there are quite a few lefties. If it's a mental illness it's both exceptionally widely spread and doesn't preclude success in society.
I think maybe it's time to put that particular cliche out to pasture and try to come up with an explanation that's explanatory. That was the point of the question I posed.