A State Suicide Pact, Part II

January 24, 2024 by Dan Mitchell @ International Liberty

Almost exactly one year ago, I wrote a column about a coordinated effort to impose class-warfare tax increases in seven left-wing states.

 

Fortunately, that effort fizzled.

Meanwhile, there was continued progress in other states to lower tax rates. The net effect was “the feel-good map of 2023.”

And we have more and more evidence that taxpayers are “voting with their feet” by moving to the lower-tax states.

So it would seem that the issue is settled, right?

Not exactly. Our friends on the left have not given up.

David Chen of the New York Times reports that there’s now an effort to impose class-warfare taxes in 10 states.

Here are some excerpts from his story.

Lawmakers in Vermont are introducing legislation this week that would impose new taxes on the state’s wealthiest residents, joining a growing national campaign… One proposal in Vermont would tax people with more than $10 million in net worth on their capital gains, even if the gains have not yet been realized. Another would add a 3 percent marginal tax on individual incomes exceeding $500,000 a year…

The package of bills is part of a broader push across the country by progressive groups… the campaign began in earnest a year ago, when legislators in seven states…coordinated the introduction of bills… None of those proposals got out of committee. But this year, with Vermont, Pennsylvania and possibly other states joining the fold, organizers are redoubling their efforts… Some of the ultrawealthy agree: More than 250 billionaires and millionaires, including heirs to the Rockefeller and Disney fortunes, recently signed an open letter, coinciding with the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that urged world leaders to tax them more.

With regards to the rich people who claim to want higher taxes, I invite them to follow these instructions on how to voluntarily pay extra money to Washington.

But since none of them ever go for that option, we can safely assume that they are virtue-signalling hypocrites.

So let’s instead consider what will happen if politicians succeed in raising taxes in any of the 10 states mentioned in the article. And we’ll use Vermont as an example.

 

The top tax rate in Vermont is currently 8.75 percent and some politicians want to push that rate to 11.75 percent. If they are successful, Vermont will have the nation’s second-highest top tax rate, with only California being worse.

That’s economic suicide, especially since Vermont is right next to zero-tax New Hampshire.

And if Vermont politicians also impose a tax on unrealized capital gains (an idea so crazy that no other government has ever imposed such a levy), then the state’s suicide timetable will get even more compressed.

For what it’s worth, part of me perversely hopes Vermont goes down this path.

Just like it is helpful to have good examples, it’s also helpful to have bad examples. New Hampshire vs. Vermont could be the domestic version of Switzerland vs Greece.

Cutting their own throats, Germany leads the way to energy poverty

Civilization is spinning backwards to appease the climate change bogeyman

By A. Dru Kristenev ——Bio and Archives--December 16, 2021

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 Joe Biden is blaming the killer tornadoes that flew through Kentucky, Illinois and other states this past week on climate change. To bolster his battle against climate change, he’s promoting vaccine booster sites to protect against more tornadoes slicing and dicing America’s heartland.

In the midst of the climate change debate that, in the administration’s estimation, vaccines evidently will eradicate, Russia vetoed the United Nations Security Council’s resolution that climate change is the enemy that must be confronted. The only way climate change can influence “international peace and security” is how it’s being invoked to make both impossible to achieve.

Clueless Germany is the poster child for handing over its sovereignty to the howling minority of eco-whiners

Putin may be the only leader of a major power that understands energy is power. Were he to pile on the bandwagon to dismantle nuclear and coal plants as Germany is actively doing, he must realize that Russia would be left “powerless” to provide for any of the nation’s needs from food to arms.

Don’t assume this is an expression of approval for Putin’s policies. It is recognition that he is doing what other world leaders are not – favoring his own country above the political maneuverings of an international glee club. Noteworthy is that China, the other “superpower,” had the wherewithal to abstain from the vote that, had it gone along with the United States and other misguided members of the Security Council, it would be voting against its own misanthropic interests.

Clueless Germany is the poster child for handing over its sovereignty to the howling minority of eco-whiners. Closing the last of its nuclear plants under the false pretense of replacing that clean energy with “sustainable” wind power that is anything but and unreliable, Germany is cutting its own throat. Keeping outward appearances of taking measures to combat climate change, the country will be charging a premium for power that it’s now forced to purchase from suppliers like France, which generates wattage from, guess what? Nuclear power plants. The hypocrisy is stretching the ability of average citizens to comprehend the strategy.

Power, power everywhere but none to be had…

Power, power everywhere but none to be had… except by the industrial consumer that signs on to climate change absurdity. As Germany restricts availability of electricity and fuel to heat homes, it evidently has no problem allowing manufacturers to purchase fuel to run their private generators.

In the meantime, Joe Biden trips over his convoluted words to press for the Build Back Bankrupt Act that adds a hefty tax targeting natural gas, burdening Americans yet further with democrats insisting on punishing anyone who prefers to keep their house warm enough for winter occupancy. Even the Washington Post published an op-ed blasting Europe’s insane policy of shutting down clean energy plants to follow the climate change pipe dream.

Fussing that coal, natural gas and nuclear power generation is devastating the environment, these nations, Biden administration included, have committed to self-denial that will ultimately guarantee loss of livelihood and lives due to weather-related and politically-engineered lack of resolve.

Capping it off regarding coal plants that still supply about 30% of power in the United States (upon which electric vehicles are dependent, by the way), West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has filed suit against the Environmental Protection Agency for overstepping its authority. The Biden White House has, once again, allowed an administrative agency excessive power to micromanage Americans’ lives in the same way that OSHA was directed to mandate businesses coerce employees to be vaccinated. It’s worth mentioning that OSHA’s (i.e. Biden’s) power grab in being halted by the courts..........To Read More....