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| Senator Joe Markley |
By State Senator Joe Markley
If there’s a quote I’m tired of hearing, it’s the
one groundlessly attributed to Einstein, which defines insanity as doing
the same thing over and over while expecting a different result.
Of course there’s a reason the saying is so common,
at least in Connecticut: a lot of crazy repetition goes on at our state
capitol.
Take the fiscal policy of the Democratic party
since they’ve had total control of state government. Within a month of
his inauguration in 2011, Governor Dannel Malloy called for the largest
tax increase in our history, to close a multi-billion
dollar deficit. His legislative minions delivered the hike, along with
the spending increase the governor also requested.
Four years later,
faced with a comparable deficit, Malloy applied the same prescription:
another multi-billion dollar tax increase and more state spending, again
imposed solely with Democratic legislative votes.
When 2017 brought yet another deficit, the General
Assembly delivered yet another tax increase, which Malloy again signed
it into law.
Now our current year’s budget is $260 million in
the red, and the shortfall in the next biennium promises to be the
largest yet: over $4 billion. Our state’s economy is collapsing before
our eyes—and what does Malloy propose? More of
the same: increases in the gas tax, the cigarette tax, the hotel tax,
and the real estate conveyance tax; new tariffs on tires and
non-prescription drugs; reinstitution of taxes on social security and
pension income; and elimination of property tax and business
tax deductions.
On top of all those taxes, the big spenders also
clamor for the installation of tolls, which will pick our pocket
automatically, every few miles on every limited-access roadway in the
state. If they get their way, residents can expect
to pay twenty cents or even more for every mile they drive on
Connecticut highways.
If that’s insanity, it’s not confined to Malloy.
The left wing of his party demands ever higher taxes on top earners,
blind to the exodus of wealth the tax hikes have caused. Yet the
numbers are undeniable: our most prosperous residents
are moving away, and taking billions of dollars of income out of
Connecticut.
It’s not just the wealthy who depart: our most
promising youth are leaving the state, our most innovative
entrepreneurs, our most iconic businesses—our parents and grandparents,
neighbors and friends, children and families. It stands to
reason that people leave when public policy gives them cause. Why
can’t liberals see the damage done by their tax increases? Editor's Note: Senator Markley is spot on. It was public policy that finally prompted me and countless others to leave the state.
Doctors for centuries bled their patients as a form
of treatment. Of course it didn’t work, but what doctor committed to
the practice could acknowledge the harm he had caused? Likewise, the
politicians who bleed us through taxation are
blind to the injury they inflict on our economy. They respond to our
decline by bleeding us more, even as the pulse of industry fades away in
our state.
Because Malloy actually steers the ship, he can see
the disaster his political course has caused, even if he can’t accept
responsibility and change direction. That cognitive dissonance takes
its toll on the governor. Even for a self-described
porcupine, his recent prickliness with the press is remarkable.
When asked last month by a veteran capitol reporter
if, after seven years as governor, he had any responsibility for the
state of the state, Malloy simply couldn’t engage with the question.
“You’re wrong,” he barked. Wrong about what the
governor didn’t say—about a journalist having the right to question him,
I suppose. Recent press conferences have been so contentious that WPLR
morning radio hosts Chaz and A.J. make an
analysis of the governor’s responses a regular and entertaining part of
their show.
Dan Malloy and the committed liberals who run his
party simply cannot change their minds. It’s not our job to determine
their sanity, but we must ask ourselves if we believe in their
policies. Our state’s history over the last twenty-five
years demonstrates that citizens who elect Democrats can count on more
spending, higher taxes, and further economic decline; expecting any
other result is just a little crazy.
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