Democrats Cut Taxes!!!

The folks at BlueJersey.com posted a diary entry under the heading "Christie’s Class Warfare" which contains the following assertion:

"In the middle of making drastic cuts to many programs which target the middle class and while complaining about the "massive budget deficit" (a number that is fully unsupported by the facts and reality), he has let the surtax on those earning over $400,000 expire - a move that will cost the state $300 million annually."

Three brief observations:

(1) tax cuts never cost the state a nickel; SPENDING costs money. The underlying assumption behind an assertion such as that made in this paragraph is that any time government lets you keep any portion of your income, it’s doing you a favor. It’s the fallacy behind the "tax expenditure" theory. The failure to tax is NOT an expenditure and should not be treated as such.

(2) similarly, the thought underlying the assumption that cutting programs "targeted to the middle class" is that folks with more money somehow owe it to their less prosperous neighbors to underwrite the hiring of hordes of well-paid, obscenely benefitted, unionized, politically active public employees to undertake said services. Hence, the "class warfare" title: someone who refuses to deprive A of the product of his labor for the benefit of B, who hasn’t earned it, is a "class warrior". Um, no. He’s an advocate of freedom.

And, finally, (3), as it happens, Governor Christie had absolutely nothing do to with permitting that obscene tax surcharge to expire. Let us accord credit where it is due, to erstwhile Governor Jon Corzine and the Democrats in the Legislature!! Perhaps for the first time in the last eight years, they took an action – through inaction – which will actually benefit the New Jersey economy. That tax rate was "temporary"; it expired of its own limitations three weeks before Christie took office. Corzine and the Dems in the Legislature always had it within their power to extend that rate, if they desired. They had the votes and does anyone doubt that JC would have signed it? Had they felt that this was good policy, nothing stood in their way – save, perhaps, the lesson learned in November.

Perhaps because they simply wished to spite their vanquisher, they petulantly refused to extend this tax. And, out of that pique, and that political calculation, comes good policy.

I would dearly love to be able to claim credit for a $300 million tax cut, but simple honesty prevents me from doing so. While the blame for the nonsensical policy which produced that tax rate – and the resulting economic damage – remains at the feet of the Democrats, to them, too, must go the credit for repentance.

Congratulations, then, to Governor Corzine, Speaker Roberts, Senate President Codey, and the Democratic legislative majority!! For the first time in eight years, confronted with the opportunity to do real harm, they demurred. And the state will be that much better off for their (in)action.