Democrats have made it clear that they favor raising taxes -- they prefer to say they want the Bush tax cuts to "expire."
The administration's tax relief, Democrats argue, benefited only the "rich" and led to massive budget deficits.
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The argument is fallacious. But like Charlie Brown's response when confronted by Lucy with his lackluster baseball statistics, Democrats would apparently prefer that the facts "shut up."
According to the U.S. Treasury, federal revenue increased a whopping 11.2 percent during the first six months of 2006 compared with 2005. That includes individual income (up 10.2 percent); corporate income (up 29.5 percent); and social insurance collections (up 7.2 percent).
All this suggests that the tax cuts not only stimulated economic growth, which in turn generated wheelbarrows of cash for Washington, but that the deficit is a result of out-of-control spending rather than policies that allow Americans to keep more of their own money.
The solution to balancing the federal books, The Wall Street Journal notes, "is restraint and reform, not higher taxes."
But guess which option the new Democratic Congress is likely to prefer?
