Politicians on Capitol Hill love to title legislation with lofty, high-minded rhetoric despite the fact that, in practice, the bill actually achieves the opposite and takes away that which it implies it will provide. ObamaCare’s official title is “The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” Yet it makes health care less affordable. Another example is the Employee Free Choice Act, which would destroy employee free choice by removing workers’ rights to a federally supervised private ballot election for matters on unionizatoin, allowing for coercion and intimidation.
Democrats in the California state house are no different. Yesterday, California Democrats introduced their latest budget proposal, which they have dubbed the “Jobs Budget,” yet would levy billions in job-killing taxes increases.
This latest proposal entails higher taxes on energy production, web-based businesses, income, and cars. Senate President Steinberg and Speaker Perez also think they’ve discovered a slick maneuver by which they can sell their income tax hike/sales tax cut swap – which comes to roughly a $2 billion net tax increase – as an effective tax cut. However, as we pointed out on Monday, this proposal is based on flawed assumptions and their logic has numerous holes that render their claims of tax reduction just plain false.
To his credit, Governor Schwarzenegger immediately declared the Democrats’ budget dead on arrival. Americans for Tax Reform applauds Governor Schwarzenegger and legislative Republicans for standing strong in support of the Governor’s May budget, which rectifies the state’s $19.1 billion overspending problem with necessary cuts and no tax increases.
Below is a response to the Democrats’ newest budget from Republican Senate Leader Hollingsworth and GOP Assembly Leader Martin Garrick: