As the Republican wave swept over the country, liberal enclaves on the West Coast and the Northeast held onto the Obama dream, at least a little while longer. No place more so than Oregon, where the makeup of the House & Senate members remained unchanged (4 Democrats/1 Republican in the House, 2 Democrat Senators), and where an ex-two term liberal governor was elected to the post again. Oregon hasn't had a Republican governor since the '80's.In January 2010, while the country was slipping into a deep recession and Tea Party mania was sweeping the land, Oregon stood strong and voted in favor of Measure 67, which according to Ballot Pedia:
increase(d) taxes in the state by $733 million through increasing the state’s corporate minimum tax, raising taxes on the state’s high-income individuals and raising income taxes on businesses.I don't recall the ballot measure, but I know that in 2009, as the state unemployment rate was skyrocketing, my own Multnomah County voted on a property tax hike to make sure the teachers got their 3% pay raise, even while everyone else was headed to the unemployment lines. Such is the perspective of most Oregonians that anything and everything must be done to keep the State government unions fully funded and in power.
Oregon's success in implimenting its socialist policies is reflected in its unemployment rate, which is a full 3% higher than the already way-too-high national average.
Now the Wall Street Journal has come out with an article showing how the taxation of the rich has led to a loss of tax income for the state, a result that will surprise no RTP&GGer (the link is to the TaxProf blog as you need a subscription to see the actual WSJ article):
Oregon raised its income tax on the richest 2% of its residents last year to fix its budget hole, but now the state treasury admits it collected nearly one-third less revenue than the bean counters projected. ...How could this socialist policy fail? Taxing the rich is the way to prosperity for all, right? As Obama said, "I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody", and "I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money". Well, that kind of deep, perceptive thought, that could only come from the Ivy League-educated, results in this:
In 2009 the state legislature raised the tax rate to 10.8% on joint-filer income of between $250,000 and $500,000, and to 11% on income above $500,000. Only New York City's rate is higher. Oregon's liberal voters ratified the tax increase on individuals and another on businesses in January of this year, no doubt feeling good about their "shared sacrifice."
Congratulations. Instead of $180 million collected last year from the new tax, the state received $130 million. ...
One reason revenues are so low is that about one-quarter of the rich tax filers seem to have gone missing. The state expected 38,000 Oregonians to pay the higher tax, but only 28,000 did. Funny how that always happens. These numbers are in line with a Cascade Policy Institute study, based on interstate migration patterns, predicting that the tax surcharge would lead to 80,000 fewer wealthy tax filers in Oregon over the next decade. ...Barack and you other socialists, maybe you should make sure you imprison the wealthy so they can't pick up and leave before you rape them of their hard-earned or easily-earned dough.
The sad thing is, the majority of Oregonians embrace these kinds of policies. Heavy sigh.
I know that a lot of these people that raise taxes know that it leads to a lost of government revenue. Obama is one example. He was asked during the Presidential debates if we would raise taxes knowing that doing so leads to less government revenue, Obama said that he would raise taxes for the purposes of fairness.
ReplyDeleteA lot of liberal states, I don't know if Oregon is included, are on the verge of bankruptcy. http://hotair.com/archives/2010/12/20/video-the-coming-collapse-in-the-state-budgets/
A good video. The sad thing is that there will be no place left for the evil rich to escape to as the whole Nation will be forced to pay for these liberal states bad economic policies as the Federal government will have to bail out these states. http://www.cnbc.com/id/40769692
Atleast we have pretty mountains to look at.
ReplyDeleteTexas is ugly.
Nice mountains with a red soviet star above them. I heard there are creatures called hippies roaming the forest up there. They look human but have long hair and breath smoke from all of the pot they do. They run and cling to trees when scared.
ReplyDeleteI have lost a lot of respect for our military leaders. Defense secretary Robert Gates was named Man Of The Year by MTV and Admiral Mike Mullen has been honored by GQ magazine by naming him man of the year. They should be embarrased and ashamed. But this is very telling.
I think Gates has done a relatively good job. He defends Obama a little more than I would like, but I assume that it's part of being apart of the administration. Nonetheless, I think he has been successful in getting a Republican inside of the DoD and doing a good job in trimming some of the Defense budget. The F-35 2nd engine is a joke, and I think he made the right call in getting rid of JFCOM.
ReplyDeleteThis was meant to be taken in a joking manner along with the hippies roaming the woods up in Oregon. MTV and GQ magazine giving awards to our military leaders is indicates how our society is deteriorating. This award is usually given to pop starts or pop culture icons. Gates seemed not very firm in his support for repealing DADT and keeping the law in place. Other than that I don't know much about them.
ReplyDelete