Big Dogs Weblog

M.O.M Knows Best

by Big Dog on Sep 23, 2007 at 12:14 Uncategorized

The Governor of Maryland, Martin O’Malley (M.O.M) has been in office for about 9 months and during this period he has been cooking up ways to impose massive tax increases that will affect every person in the state despite his claims that 83 or 95% of wage earners will see the same or lower taxes on their income. In keeping with the tradition of the Democrats, O’Malley is raising taxes to pay for spending that Democrats were and are responsible for. The Maryland political scene is full of Democrats and Republicans have held little or no power for a long time. Republicans had no influence on the spending that got this state into a 1.5 billion dollar structural deficit. It was all Democrats all the time and their refusal to curb the growth of government necessitates an increase in taxes, and these increases are those that I warned about after election day and before the Teflon Leprechaun took the oath of office.

M.O.M wants to raise taxes on cigarettes, a tax he was opposed to last year on the grounds that it was a decreasing revenue stream. He correctly indicated at the time that fewer people would smoke and more would quit and the revenue stream would dry up. I applauded that position as correct but now M.O.M has taken the incorrect path. I do not oppose taxes on cigarettes though I think they affect the poor much more than the wealthy and M.O.M claims to be an advocate for the poor. I have a real problem with projecting income from a tobacco tax and committing it to a cause (in this case health care). When revenues start to fade, where will the money come from that will pay for this new structural deficit? It will come from the taxpayer in the form of new and higher taxes.

M.O.M wants to raise the gasoline tax but in so doing he wants it to be a percentage of the cost of the gas so that each time gas prices rise so will the amount we pay in taxes. It is not bad enough that the state does not use the taxes in the manner that they were intended (the are supposed to pay for transportation needs but go to the general fund) but now we will be getting gouged by the state on a sliding scale. I guess since the oil companies were not gouging us, the Maryland government figured it needed to.

M.O.M also wants to change the income tax in this state. Currently, the state has a fair tax system because everyone pays the same percentage of income. The dollar amounts differ, of course, but each person pays 4.75% of his income to the state. For a person who makes $3000 a year (the lowest amount of taxable income) pays $142.50 and a person who makes a million dollars pays $47,500 or 333 times as much as the lowest wage earner but the percentage is the same. This is called fair but M.O.M does not see it this way. He wants to raise the percentage that the higher wage earners pay in what he calls a fair plan. Only to a Democrat can paying more than others be considered fair. Top this with the fact that lower wage earners consume the greatest amount of government resources (far more than the higher wage earners) and it is hard to imagine how any sane person can call this fair. It is socialism pure and simple.

M.O.M stated that 83% of wage earners would pay the same or less and then he revised this to 95% in order to get a large group of people to support him. He is using class envy to get support. M.O.M states that he can balance the budget by doing this so what he is really saying is that either 17% or 5% of the wage earners will foot the bill and pay off the incompetence of the Democrats while everyone else goes along for the ride, at least with regard to income taxes. I cannot imagine how anyone can call this fair. The problem is M.O.M actually believes that this is fair. I wonder how fair he would see it if Republicans in Maryland got two votes on election day because they are underrepresented. I imagine that would not fit his definition of fair.

The real kicker to the M.O.M plan is that he will raise the sales tax on goods by one cent. It will go from 5% to 6% and people claim that this is no big deal because it is only a penny (really it is a cent) but they fail to realize that this is a 20% increase in taxes. M.O.M will increase the sales tax by 20% and he is going to expand it to all kinds of services. The only service that will be exempted is lawyer fees. Lawyer fees will not be taxed but the amount a barber charges for a haircut will. I guess when a bunch of ambulance chasing lawyers get to make the laws they can exempt themselves from those laws, witness Congress.

The problem with this is that the 20% increase in the sales tax will hurt the middle and lower classes much more than the higher wage earners. The people M.O.M claims to want to help and to give a break to rely more heavily on goods than do the upper wage earners. Those in the lower wages will save 50 or 60 dollars a year in income taxes but will spend a lot more than that in services and goods that have the 20% increase imposed upon them. A new car purchase or a bunch of other smaller purchases will quickly erode any tax savings that the lower wage earners will briefly enjoy.

M.O.M is calling his plan a tax reform but it is no such thing. This is nothing more than raising taxes and it is that simple. Only a complete retard would buy this bill of goods from O’Malley and his Democratic colleagues. Of course, there are plenty of folks who step up and claim that it is a great idea because M.O.M has told them it will only affect the wealthy among us and that all others will live a wonderful life while sponging off the hard work of others. These people lack the intelligence to see how it will affect them and M.O.M is counting on that to get his tax increases pushed through. This is being done now so that there will be three years buffer between the increases and the next election. M.O.M will strike early and then claim he has not raised taxes in years. People like me will be around to constantly remind people of what he and his cronies did and to educate the less informed about the stupidity of this plan. Tax increases will not solve the problems. Problems will not be solved until the politicians learn to live within their means and to quit spending like a drunken sailer on shore leave. This is how we got into this mess in the first place.

The Democrats in Maryland are not fiscally responsible. They make laws and require spending and do not have a funding source. They spend and then make up their shortfalls by jumping on the backs of the hard working citizens of the state. In our own lives we cannot spend ourselves into huge debt and then coerce our bosses to pay us more money. We need to live within our means. In Maryland the legislature just extorts more money from the citizens and continues with business as usual. Maryland is the wealthiest state in the Union and yet cannot keep a tight lid on spending.

There are many people who will move out of this state. Those that have mobility in their jobs or flexibility to commute will do so. Neighboring states offer better deals than does Maryland though they have their issues as well. I do not have the ability to move just yet but I live close enough to Delaware to drive there and shop. Delaware charges NO sales tax so that will be quite a savings. My wife and I do not intend to replace our cars for quite some time. We hope to be residents of another state by the time we do. It is also obvious we need to give more scrutiny to our tax situation so as to not give one red cent more than we have to. For others who live in the oppressive state of Maryland, US savings bonds are exempt from state and local taxes.

Maryland government never met a tax it didn’t hike and M.O.M is no different. The only thing I take pleasure in is that the idiots who voted for this dumb ass will be paying through their teeth because of him. I only have to remind them that M.O.M promised to stop the electric rate hike. How will you folks make ends meet with that 75% electric increase and all these oppressive taxes.

All I can say is you got what you asked for so shut up, bend over, and take it. To M.O.M I say, you are an idiot and I only hope we have a recall election to get rid of your sorry ass.

Tags: Political Commentary