DEMOCRATS PROPOSE YET ANOTHER NEW TAX: A WAR TAX

Democratic Congressmen late Monday evening released their demand for a war tax to help pay for the additional troops to be sent to Afghanistan. (Has that been established yet?) Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., chairman of the purse- string controlling House Appropriations Committee, is calling the idea a "war surtax." It has not been announced yet how much that tax will be, but you can be  sure it will apply only to the rich. The hook in the proposal will be how little you have to make to be classified as rich.

High taxes are driving the big earners out of California, New York and other states where taxes are particularly oppressive. Their generous welfare benefits are attracting non-producing consumers of welfare. The net effect is the population is gradually becoming poorer and more needy at the same time revenues are drying up. This is a prescription for disaster.

The same thing is happening to the nation as a whole. You won’t hear it shouted from the rooftops, but right now an American moves out of the country to escape confiscatory taxation and increasing regulation at the rate of one every 54 minutes around the clock. Those are our wealthiest, most productive citizens, the ones the Democrats think are bottomless, uncomplaining pits of tax resources.