When President
Obama won re-election last month by a larger margin than even his
most fervent supporters had expected, though with fewer popular
votes than he received in 2008, most commentators initially opined
that not much had changed in Washington. The president would remain
in the White House for another four years, the Democrats would keep
control of the Senate, and the House would stay in Republican hands.
Most Republicans re-elected to both houses of Congress had publicly
pledged not to vote to raise taxes under any circumstances. And
most of those Republicans have adhered to that promise – until now.
Over the Thanksgiving
weekend, the false congressional fiscal conservatives in the Republican
Party began to reveal their true selves. Led by the Republican presidential
standard bearer in 2008, Arizona Sen. John McCain, at least a half-dozen
Republican members of Congress have renounced their public promises
never to vote to raise taxes. In the case of Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.,
Congressman and Senator-elect Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Rep. Peter
King, R-N.Y., they had re-stated their promises, directly or indirectly,
as recently as last month during their successful campaigns. Did
they blatantly dupe the voters? Did they genuinely change their
minds? Did they ever sincerely accept the pro-freedom anti-tax logic?
The Founders
certainly embraced the pro-freedom anti-tax logic, as they gave
us a Constitution that barred the federal government from imposing
any direct tax on any persons. That was part of the genius of the
document. If the feds really needed cash, they’d need to tax the
states. If the states were feeling over-taxed, they could block
federal taxes in the Senate, where for 135 years senators were chosen
by state governments as delegates to the Senate, rather than elected
by voters. This procedure, too, was part of the Founders’ genius.
It came about in order to assure a place at the federal table for
the states, many of which were older than the federal government
and all of which retained their sovereignty when they voluntarily
joined the union. This procedure for choosing senators was also
a check on the growth of the federal government.