And what do we see?? As he points out, once again the cry from the left that we have a tax problem is laid threadbare. Just as with the Kennedy and Reagan tax cuts government tax revenues soared to new heights after Bush’s cuts. We have no shortage of taxes, and haven’t for 50 years. Why does this surge occur? Each time the same reason: cuts in marginal tax rates mean the marginal advantage to productive work and investment increases. You can deny it, but its no different than the law of gravity.

What is perhaps most offensive about Obama’s assertion is the notion that this is a contest between taxes and vital spending. Any cursory inspection of government spending over the last 50 years reveals it has far,far outpaced population growth and inflation by a wide margin. Government is spending a fortune – and taxing a fortune – but it never seems to be enough. (This may be a topic of a future post).

To put it in the vernacular – Politicians have managed to create the worlds largest poker game, where they relentlessly tax money into the Washington pot, and then Senators and Representatives compete to see who can best return those dollars to their constituents………in return for a vote, of course. Politicians who play good poker get re-elected.

The only real problem with the poker analogy is that in a poker game you actually get all the dollars in the pot. With government there are so many lobbyists, govt workers and assorted piglets slopping at the trough that the pot is half empty by time it gets distributed. In some neighborhoods that would get you shot. With government, it gets calls for more taxes.

Obama says we are neglecting vital spending because we lack taxes.

Infrastructure, an expenditure that most would agree is a legitimate govt activity, has been neglected for 30-40 years. This has nothing to do with the prevailing tax rates. It has to do with where the money is spent, and non-infrastructure spending appears to get more votes. I guess medicare spending is like the ace of spades, and spending on the crumbling roads, the 2 of clubs. Education? Spending is higher than ever, even if performance is not. The Joker card I guess.

The fact of the matter is that we a have a spending problem, and the spending problem primarily is centered on transfer payments: taxing one guy so they can give it to the guy down the street.

Mr Boomerjeff has it right, Barack Obama is anything but a fresh face for “new politics.” He’s a standard issue old line leftist who never saw a tax he didn’t like, a spending program he couldn’t peddle for a vote, and a potential tax source he couldn’t demonize.

But then those of us from Chicago already knew that. Will the country catch on, or do we need Jimmt Carter II?