Federal/State Revenues Fall

Is it a surprise to anyone that federal tax revenues are down, seeing the biggest drop since the Great Depression?

I guess Congress and the President still haven't learned that there is such a thing as too many taxes. Maybe they need to take an economics course. Then again all they really need to do is listen to Arthur Laffer as he explains his curve.

We already know the present Congress is incapable of actually reducing spending (hence the $1.2+ trillion deficit for the coming fiscal year), so we should expect nothing but more taxes to be laid upon the rich (newly redefined as “anyone with a job”).

In all 50 states revenues are down as well. In New Hampshire, where the Weekend Pundit team resides, state revenues in July were down compared to July last year. Somehow I doubt the Democrat majority in the state legislature planned for that, figuring with all the tax and fee increases revenues would rise.

The question is what will they do if revenues continue to come in under projections? I'd like to think they'd finally get around to making some tough decisions and start trimming the state budget. I'd really like to think that. Even 10 years ago that might have happened. But today, they'll merely decide that they need to raise even more taxes and fees or, even worse, institute a broad-based tax (income or sales tax) and drive the final nail into the coffin of the New Hampshire Advantage. Then we'd be no different from any other state in the Northeast, with poor economic outlook, a crushing tax burden, and nothing to show for it but empty store fronts and factories and higher unemployment.