Politicians at the national level are generally uninterested, if not outright hostile, to the idea of federalism. Rather than allow states to exercise their authority under our federal system, national politicians, of both major parties, prefer to consolidate power in official Washington whenever and wherever possible.
It's an odd and illuminating thing, then, to see one of the national parties decide that because official Washington can't get the job done, they will try to get states to do it themselves.
Such is the case with a handful of state lawmakers in deep blue states working together to push for wealth taxes on their richest residents. If this sounds a bit familiar, you may recall that in its early days, the Biden administration pushed for a wealth tax on the rich (among a host of other proposed tax hikes) as part of its sprawling “Build Back Better” bill.
The Senate refused to go along, and the wealth tax idea was dropped from what became the still-sprawling, and ill-named, “Inflation Reduction Act.”
Enter those tax-happy progressive state legislators:
The state legislators say they would like to try such ideas as a test case for future national policy while acting collectively to minimize the threat of people moving to a nearby lower-tax state.
“States are the labs of innovation,” said Noel Frame (D), a state senator in Washington. “But taxes are different. This is why we are all here together.”
No longer will states “get pitted against each other,” she added.
Sponsors told The Washington Post that they will introduce their bills on Thursday in California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, New York and Washington, and shared the text of their draft bills.
Sen. Frame gets points for earnestness but failing marks for geography. The Tax Foundation looked at interstate migration in 2021 and found high-tax states lost residents while low-tax states gained them. While tax rates alone can't account for all those moving vans, they can't be dismissed as a cause for people hitting the road, either.
Will the progressive lawmakers' colleagues agree with the wealth tax idea? Will the governors who have to sign such bills go along? And if the bills can clear both those hurdles…will the moving vans show up to take the “rich” to a low-to-no tax state?
Let the experiment…and the packing…begin.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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As this and so many other facts prove, politicians are all on the same team. It’s the government versus the rest of us. After all of the complaining, it’s time for solutions. There is one. Look up Word from Future for a complete description.
Maybe it’s time to supersize constitutional rights and remedies…
EXERSIZE, not supersize!
A firearms instructor I know defined a “right” as something people are willing to die for. History shows that this is what it takes if you want to wrench the corrupt livelihoods away from politicians and tyrants in order to preserve your own rightful livelihood.
There’s a better way. Wash. D.C. has seceded from the United States that was defined by the Constitution. Let them have their way – in their own small plot of land. They;ll quickly cannibalize each other.
What a great idea! Yes, blue states! Tax the hell out of those rich bastids! NOTE TO FLORIDA AND TEXAS!!: Call out your State Guard people now! You’re about to be overrun by rich bastids fleeing the sh-tholes they’ve made of their own states. Put an armored unit at every border you have. Confiscate their trailer-loads of cash and turn them around at the state line at gun-point. Save yourselves!