You should really write that book about the things you think you know about lefties. You could totally fill it.
In North Carolina, we’re facing a multi-billion-dollar budget deficit. The governor, to emphasize how difficult it is to balance a state budget, put a widget on her website where you could try your hand at balancing the budget. It begins with all the different programs you could cut, choosing how much to cut and where. It ended with a couple of revenue-enhancing things you could do.
If you:
- Maintain the sales tax where it currently is (that is, don’t drop the temporary 1% sales tax hike in the middle of a budget crisis);
- Raise the tax on cigarettes to (not by, to) $1.00 a pack, putting these taxes at 69% of the national average; and
- Privatize the state liquor store system (not change the taxes on them, just sell off the franchises),
then you have a modest budget surplus for the year. You don’t need to cut a single penny: all you have to do is to keep one regressive tax in place and raise another regressive tax that will result in modest health benefits for poor people.
If you’re actually willing to be a leftist with a spine, then sure: raise the income tax on the top brackets. But the governor didn’t even make that an option on her widget.