Left-wingers are a grim lot. Not only is the sky falling and the glass half empty, but it’s the lack of funding that makes the sky fall and drains water from the glass. Take the current Texas economy: unlike the rest of the nation, the state has job growth and the economy is performing strongly. But to the state’s liberals, calamity rules because government isn’t taking all that it could from your wallet.
The Center for Public Policy Priorities (or, the CCCP), has issued a statement saying “Texas faces another tight budget in 2010-11.” They go on to shrilly warn that “the state will again be unable to fund critical public systems without new sources of revenue.”
What planet are they on? Texas had a $14.3 billion surplus in 2007, and is expected to have a surplus of between $10 billion and $15 billion in 2009.
Unsurprisingly, the CCCP sees only one solution: an income tax.
Solution to what problem? Their lack of access to your income. They want more, more, more. An income tax is their solution for every problem. Want universal healthcare? Get an income tax. Want better schools? Get an income tax. Have weeds in your garden? Get an income tax. For CCCP, there is simply nothing an income tax cannot do.
What “critical” services are “without” funding? All of them! Everything needs more! More! Universal healthcare! Bigger bureaucracies! Socialized grocery stores!
If only Texas had an income tax, then we could be just like Michigan (losing a 1,000 jobs a day), or Maine (ever heard of them doing anything productive, besides not being Canada?), or Vermont (about the size of Austin, only with more trees and fewer jobs), or California.
In reality, an income tax is a killer. It kills jobs by the millions. States without income taxes ALWAYS outperform states with income taxes. States with income taxes huge economic loss and high rates of poverty, states without income taxes are free and growing.