Procrustes – literally, “the stretcher who hammers metal” --
was in Greek mythology a rogue smithy and bandit from Attica who cut off the
legs of people to fit them to his iron bed. Political narratives as they relate
to facts can be procrustean beds. If the facts don’t fit the narrative, you
simply cut off their limbs to make them fit. Facts may be stubborn things, but
politicians sometimes are more stubborn.
A few months ago, Governor Dannel Malloy’s budget guru, Ben
Barnes, was asked by a reporter why the Malloy administration was so keen to
slap a tax on hospitals. Barnes should have replied, “because the hegemonic
Democratic Party in Connecticut finds it politically inconvenient to make
permanent cuts in spending. Instead, he replied in the accent of infamous bank
robber Willie Sutton, “Because that’s where the money is.” Asked why he robbed
banks, Sutton’s reply was shockingly apposite, according to a reporter who may
have foisted the quote on Sutton – “because that’s where the money is.”
For the Malloy administration – and, indeed, for most
progressive Democrats in Connecticut – there is but one solution to declining
revenues -- you increase taxes. And when in response to tax increases revenues
decrease, you increase taxes further, a process that results in further diminished
revenues, which leads to deepening and repetitive state deficits, which leads
to more tax increases, which leads to -- guess what? Lame duck Governor Malloy
is the author of two massive tax increases, both the largest and the second
largest in state history, and yet deficits continue to raise their horned heads
as taxpayers and businesses leave the state.
Connecticut hospitals will not be leaving the state. They
are stationary tax targets, ducks set up in a row in Connecticut’s tax
carnival, easy prey. And that was – note the past tense – where
the money was before progressive legislators forced Connecticut hospitals to
lay down for a bloody stretch on Malloy’s tax bed.
Now – better late than never -- Hartford Courant business reporter Dan Harr
tells us:
“Connecticut's 28 acute-care hospitals
collectively saw their gain from operations fall by 17 percent in the fiscal
year that ended Sept. 30, to a level that's not sustainable for the system as a
whole over the long haul.
“One big reason for the decline:
For the first time, a state tax on health care providers that started in 2012
exceeded the total amount of operating surplus the hospitals had after they
paid the tax.”
Here is the inconvenient truth Connecticut’s progressive procrustean
lawmakers have trimmed to their narrative, lopping off limbs to suit their
purpose: The more you tax, the more you spend; the more you spend, the more you
are forced to tax. Inconvenient corollary: There is but one escape from this
destructive process -- you must sizably reduce spending permanently. In
Connecticut, the failure of government to act for the benefit of the whole
state, has led over a period of years to permanent debts and deficits. All these truths are conveniently tailored by
progressives to fit an iron, inflexible, narrative. And never mind that reality
intervenes to reduce to dust the presuppositions of the narrative, the most
destructive of which is this: If modest taxation is good, immodest, shameless,
limitless taxation is better.
Better for whom – qui
bono? Who benefits from excessive taxation and entangling regulation,
beyond self-serving politicians who wear on their ever expanding chests ribbons
and metals that proclaim them as saviors of the state when, in fact, they are
saving nothing and making a botch of everything?
The Lowell Weicker 1991 income tax rescued big-spending
legislators from the obligation to make prudent, permanent, long-term cuts in
spending; ditto Governor Dannel Malloy’s two massive tax increases. Tax
increases swell government, but a tax placed on, say, restaurants, in the form
of mandated increases in the minimum wage, ultimately ends in fewer
restaurants, and fewer jobs for people who are not electrical engineers or
puffed up, glory seeking politicians. Another inconvenient truth: Whatever you
tax tends to disappear. And, almost always, vanishing large businesses such as
General Electric carry wealth with them into other states, inevitably reducing
state revenues, which prompt progressive legislators to impose further tax
increases – the “abracadabra” that makes the real wealth of the state disappear.
For the real wealth of a state is not measured by the size of its treasury, but
rather by the disposable income of people unencumbered by crippling and
expensive regulations. Liberty is wealth and -- wealthy people will tell you --
wealth is liberty. When the state is wealthy and the people poor, it is the
state unchecked by the people that is at liberty.
Let those who have eyes see, let those who have ears hear.
People in Connecticut are groaning in pain. It will not be long before they
vote out of office those who have eyes but do not see, those who have ears but
do not hear, and these false politicians, God willing, will not be saved by
their false and comforting narratives.
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