"Tax revenues would skyrocket if the tax cuts expire, due to "bracket creep." Average incomes are higher today than in the 1990s, but income-tax brackets aren't adjusted for the growth of earnings. As a result, Americans will shift into higher tax brackets and pay a greater share of their incomes in taxes.

Going back to the tax rates of the 1990s doesn't mean that households will pay 1990s taxes. Because the tax brackets haven't risen along with incomes, average taxes would be significantly higher, and grow each year.

... So even if the tax cuts are made permanent, future Americans will pay a greater share of their incomes to the government than in the past. But for some in Washington, that's not enough."

    Pinning down Congressional Democrats’ positions on taxes is kind like trying to castrate a waking bull… and about as practical.  They simply won’t give it up.  I remember once, New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan – who was about as straightforward as Washington Democrats get – was asked if Americans are taxed too much.  Moynihan answered, “Well, they’re taxed wrongly.”  Notice how the dodge, as in a champion middleweight, effortlessly flows into the counterpunch.

    Unfortunately, the current crop of Democrats in Congress aren’t Pat Moynihan – as George Will has noted, Moynihan wrote more books than most of his colleagues read.  They’re not as straightforward and not as bright.  Ask them what they want to do about taxes, and, like on most issues, the first thing they say is that they hate what President Bush did.  So, what would they do differently?  Well, they want to make the tax code fairer?  How?  By taking away loopholes for the rich.  Which ones?  The ones that working class families can’t use.  Which are they? 

    No answer.  Listening to the Democrats, you get the sense that they definitely think taxes should be higher than they are, but they’re loathe to admit which ones.  Meanwhile, as we noticed throughout the last tax debates in 2003, the only income taxes Democrats think should be lowered are the ones on people who don’t pay income taxes at all.  So, what do they really believe?

    This tax day, Americans should make a real effort to find out what the Democrats really want to do with the Internal Revenue Code.  Conservatives, especially those represented by Democrats in Congress, should be flooding their members’ offices with letters and emails and phone calls asking exactly what their Senators and Representatives want to do on taxes.  Do they believe taxes should be higher?  Which ones?  Lower?  Again, what are the specific proposals?

    Or more importantly, what about fundamental tax reform.  Since no thinking person honestly believes the current system is an efficient means of generating revenues for the government, what would your representatives do if they could rewrite the code from scratch?  A flat tax?  A national sales tax like the Fair Tax? 

    Democrats have made no secret of their mistrust of the American with our own money; the least they can do this Tax Day is tell us exactly how they want to take it.

Farmers rebeled earlier this month when the government announced an increase in export taxes on agricultural products. Claims that the government's new "retention" rates -- aka export taxes -- are close to an expropriation are not without merit.

... In response to the tax increases, farmers have blocked roads in some 300 locations around the country, pledging not to allow their goods to reach markets. The effects of the action have been felt in the capital, where demonstrators have taken to the streets in sympathy for the farmers and against what they say is government arrogance. The strike is now in its third week.

Mrs. Kirchner says the tax increase is a redistribution mechanism, suggesting that growers and ranchers have to be forced to share more of their good fortune with others. But the greater motivation behind the export-tax increase is inflation.

This government, it seems, will do just about anything to reduce inflation except the one thing that would solve the problem: Let the peso strengthen.

I would think the best comparison for Argentina would be Jimmy Carter’s attempts are price controls in the late 70s.  Price controls did not work in Roman times and they still do not work today. 

Of course, tax rebellions are nothing new.  Interestingly one of the tactics the farmers are using is blocking roads.  Today, Pennsylvania truck drivers are striking and protesting against high gas taxes.  Some have speculated they may also attempt to block roads ...

Yesterday morning, I predicted a Barack Obama Administration would make you and I less wealthy. 

Wasting no time to prove me right, yesterday on CNBC, Barack Obama said he wanted to raise the capital gains tax.  

"I haven't given a firm number," he said. "Here's my belief, that we can't go back to some of the, you know, confiscatory rates that existed in the past that distorted sound economics. And I certainly would not go above what existed under Bill Clinton, which was the 28 percent…. My guess would be it would be significantly lower than that. I think that we can have a capital gains rate that is higher than 15 percent."

... I probably don't have to tell you this is exactly the wrong direction in which we should go.  Raising taxes during an economic downturn is insanity.  Of course, Obama will attempt to argue this is a tax for the rich.  In truth, it's a tax on anyone who is an investor.  Increasing the tax, of course, discourages investment in our economy (just what a struggling economy needs, right?) ... 

Rudy Giuliani's tax plan, which, at the time, I praised, promised to lower the capitol gains and dividend rate to 10% and index to inflation. 

I argued Rudy should have gone further and completely eliminated the capitol gains tax.  I still believe that's true.  Not only should we not raise the tax -- we should eliminate it.

By the way, ABC's Jake Tapper has an excellent post up on this ...

Today, the Institute of Policy Innovation (IPI) awarded “A’s” in Tax Policy 101 to thirty-five members of the House.  Not coincidentally these thirty-five members all voted against the “stimulus package” that passed the House on January 29.  Yours truly was among them.  In fact, I was the only one to speak out against the package on the floor.  You can find the ten Democrats and the twenty-five Republicans that also voted against it below.

Brian Baird (D-WA)
Marion Berry (D-AR)
Allen Boyd (D-FL)
Paul Broun (R-GA)
Michael Burgess (R-TX)
John Campbell (R-CA)
Howard Coble (R-NC)
Jim Cooper (D-TN)
Barbara Cubin (R-WY)
Tom Davis (R-VA)
Nathan Deal (R-GA)
Jeff Flake (R-AZ)
Randy Forbes (R-VA)
Phil Gingrey (R-GA)
Louie Gohmert (R-TX)
Virgil Goode (R-VA)
Duncan Hunter (R-CA)
Tim Johnson (R-IL)
Marcy Kaptur (D-OH)
Jack Kingston (R-GA)
John Linder (R-GA)
Ron Paul (R-TX)
Collin Peterson (D-MN)
Ted Poe (R-TX)
Tom Price (R-GA)
Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)
Ed Royce (R-CA)
Loretta Sanchez (D-CA)
James Sensenbrenner (R-WI)
John Shadegg (R-AZ)
Adam Smith (D-WA)
Tom Tancredo (R-CO)
Gene Taylor (D-MS)
Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA)
Robert Wexler (D-FL)