Posted by Jon Fleischman at 12:00 am on Feb 14, 2009 Comments Off on Will this proposed spending cap create MORE of a push for higher taxes?
I will happily acknowledge that I am NOT a policy wong.
Some of the back and forths below from policy-wonks on the language
of the proposed spending cap (that would go before the voters, tied
to extending taxes that are raised in this Big 5 deal) are above my
pay-grade.
That said, my "open question" on the cap is this?
I am going to throw out there that there is distinct possibility
that Republicans joinin hands with the Democrats for a plan that
includes $14.8 billion in tax increases is going to cause a big
problem for the GOP, and that it may very well lead to losses of
seats in the Senate and the Assembly. When the smoke clears
after the 2010 election, Democrats may have a supermajority of the
legislature (yikes).
If that were to happen, AND the spending cap as proposed in this
deal were in place (having been passed by the voters) — is the cap
strong enough to keep Democrat supermajorities from racheting up
spending (beyond the cap)? In otherwords, when we are forced
off the beach, and back onto our landing craft, have we left some
protection behind?
As I understand it, there is a big gaping hole in this
proposal. To put… Read More