The Democrats circa 2026 have almost become tax-and-spend parodies of themselves.
They used to pretend that raising taxes was a last resort. Now, the left-wing base regards raising taxes as a badge of honor.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani declared last week that he has no other choice but to raise taxes on the rich and corporations because there aren’t enough savings from efficiencies in agency budgets.
New York City spends more money per capita than any other major city in the country, but there’s no way to save money. Uh-huh!
At least Mamdani was honest and campaigned as a socialist. The Manhattanites are getting exactly what they voted for.
But the two new rising stars of the party, Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger, the newly elected governors of New Jersey and Virginia, respectively, won what were thought to be tight races by comfortable margins. How? By running as middle-of-the-road centrists. That’s what the voters in both states wanted.
Now these “moderates” are firing off tax increases like pellets from a BB gun on anything that moves.
In just her first weeks in office, Sherrill called for a 4.2-cents-per-gallon increase in the state’s gas tax, a corporate tax to pay for transit, a new millionaire mansion tax and nicotine and sports betting taxes. And more to come. New Jersey is already one of the five highest-tax states.
But Sherrill is an anti-tax crusader compared to the Dem party leaders’ new love interest for 2028: Spanberger. The maximum word count on these pages isn’t high enough to list the catalog of “revenue raisers” she has endorsed in her first weeks in office. But here’s a partial list:
- Additional local sales tax in all Virginia counties and cities
- New personal property tax on electric leaf blowers and electric landscaping equipment
- Large employer tax
- Gun and ammunition tax
- New income tax brackets
- Delivery tax, which would hit Amazon, Uber Eats, FedEx and UPS orders in Northern Virginia
- Investment income tax
- Event tax
- Storage facility tax
- Gym membership tax
- Dog walking tax
- Dog grooming tax
- Counseling tax (for those distressed by all the new taxes?)
- Digital personal property tax
- New car taxes and highway use fees
- Increase in the hotel tax in Arlington
- Statewide speed cameras (not a tax, but more fines for drivers)
- Vehicle repair tax
- Home repair tax
- Dry cleaning tax
A dog grooming tax? Really?
The Dems seem to be immune to the reality that Americans are fleeing high-tax states and cities. California, New York, and New Jersey have lost almost 4 million net residents to low-tax states over the past decade. Most of the winning states, like Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and the Carolinas, are cutting taxes, not raising them. Florida has gained $1 trillion in cumulative income from high-tax state refugees. The movers often can pay their mortgage just from the money they save on taxes by exiting blue states.
I’ve long argued that the Democrat states must change or die, and now they seem to be on a Bataan Death March of tax raising. In California, a proposed new wealth tax has already inspired a handful of Silicon Valley billionaires to exit the state. When will Democrats in blue states learn you can’t tax millionaires and billionaires if they live in Palm Beach or Dallas?
Stephen Moore is a former Trump senior economic adviser and the cofounder of Unleash Prosperity, which advocates for education freedom for all children.
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Well, well, well. The Virginia voters got had for believing this so-called moderate Democrat woman. Even with this partial list of new taxes, made me think that I am back in Europe. Wife has already stated — “We won’t be going through Virginia ever again.”
There are no moderate Democrats. There are only totalitarians in that party. They are now, and have been since 1861, at war with the values expressed in the Declaration of Independence and with the Constitution itself. They are slavers and bigots and will do anything possible to get their slaves back. Hence the destruction of the currency.
I have a hard time believing these maggots are not somehow exempt from the taxes imposed on regular people. Who would cut their own throats to bring in revenue if they weren’t somehow not paying those same taxes as well? People have short memories and the next election cycle, these same people will re-elect these morons for another go round. This a signature democrat oppression.
Demonic Rats. Intentionally immune to any component outside of dishonesty and give us more power!
Why is the delivery tax only on orders in Northern Virginia? Never have figured that out….
“The Manhattanites are getting exactly what they voted for.“. Hear hear! They absolutely deserve what they are getting.
There is no middle of the road or compromise with pure evil. The electorate are just as ignorant as they can be and do get what they deserve. The shame is that the well informed people who do fish from the right side of the boat have to suffer or leave.
Back in the 1700s when the taxman came to town people sometimes garbed him then had him TARED and FEATHERED!! Maybe we should bring that practice back!
Their population of Americans will decline; however they still get two guaranteed senators nonetheless. They will scam the votes to keep their congressmen. Illegals voting etc.
It’s like most people in Democrat cities and states think social programs can just appear with no funding, and run serving them while they do nothing to contribute to the programs. When will they wake up and see that Democrats never expect to give the people anything they promise when campaigning, and they even present themselves deceptively to win. The Naive Mamdani actually presented himself as he is, and is trying to give people what he promised, and finding that he should have found out if it was possible before he promised. All the money in NYC will move to places where they have lower taxes rather than stay where they will be made poor. It is so sad that people don’t understand that if it sounds too good to be true, it isn’t true, and don’t believe anyone who tries to convince you it is true. Virginia, and New Jersey are finding out the hard way.