July 5, 2006

Dem Swindle Runs Out of Gas in Full-Serve New Jersey

A funny thing happened to Jon Corzine on the road to the Democratic swindle that works every time. He had to shut down his state, because his own fellow Democrats finally figured out that every time the swindle is executed, they end up becoming the stooges.

Welcome to New Jersey, a state so blue that it is illegal for you to pump your own gas, because to do so would take away union jobs. That’s a pretty Democratic state. So you’re not going to have any trouble – just because you’re a multibillionaire and former CEO of Goldman Sachs – getting voters to elect you to anything, as long as you’ve got the (D) next to your name.

OK. Some trouble. Corzine had to spend $60 million of his own money to win 50.1 percent of the vote when he ran for the U.S. Senate in 2000. That’s a little too close for comfort. So if you’re going to run for governor, you had better whip out the works-every-time pledge that you will not raise taxes. It works every time, because there’s one born every minute.

One of the originators of this swindle was former Michigan Gov. Jim Blanchard, who was elected in 1982 on just such a promise. No tax increase. Once in office, with four years until the next election, Blanchard declared – to his horror – that his Republican predecessor had not been honest with him about the state’s budget situation. Now that he was in charge, he claimed, and had access to the real data . . . oh, gosh, he was so sorry, but he would have to raise the state’s income tax 50 percent.

Michigan went nuts, as Blanchard knew it would, but he had four years to work his way back from political oblivion. And he put them to good use. By 1986, Michigan voters had pretty much forgotten Blanchard’s broken promise, and they re-elected him with 71 percent of the vote.

Now that’s an impressive swindle! Worthy of the king of impressive swindles, who happens to be a good friend of Jim Blanchard’s, and who had an opportunity to try it on a national scale in 1993. You do remember Bill Clinton’s “middle-class tax cut” promise, right? Or did you forget? Maybe that’s because Clinton announced after taking office that George H.W. Bush hadn’t told the truth about how large the deficit was, and that Bill wouldn’t be able to deliver the middle-class tax cut, even though he had “tried harder than I’ve ever tried to do anything in my life.”

Oh, sure, he gave up 17 days after taking the oath. But he tried really hard! And no one seemed to remember it when November 1996 came around, so Bill easily won a second term.

So Jon Corzine knew a good thing when he saw it. It had even helped a previous New Jersey governor, Jim Florio, get elected. Mr. 50.1 Percent was taking no chances. I will not raise taxes. Wink wink. Nod nod.

Unfortunately for Gov. Corzine, his Democrat-controlled legislature is familiar with the no-new-taxes-flim-flam as well. And they know that, while governors and one president have gotten away with it, the lawmakers who facilitated these Taxpayer Emasculation Acts haven’t fared so well.

In Michigan, Blanchard got his tax increase passed all right. But two Democratic state senators who voted for the tax increase were subsequently recalled from office because they had made the same no-tax-increase promise. This gave Republicans control of the Michigan state Senate – control the GOP has not relinquished in the 23 years since.

Does anyone remember that Clinton had Democratic majorities in the U.S. House and Senate his first two years in office? What happened to that? The 1994 Republican landslide happened to that. Oh, Bill was fine. He served eight years, but he had to deal with Speaker Newt Gingrich for most of them.

So when Corzine took office and pulled the oh-my-gosh-look-at-the-real-numbers-so-sorry routine, insisting a huge increase in the state sales tax would be necessary, the Democratic majorities in the New Jersey House and Senate weren’t about to play. Hey, some people around here have to run for re-election in two years.

The Jersey Dems dug in so steadfastly that Corzine was forced this past week to shut down the state government in lieu of a budget deal with a legislature controlled by his own party.

Conventional wisdom says things are bad for Republicans in 2006. But how bad can they be when a Democrat has to promise to act like a Republican in order to get elected governor of a Democratic state? And how bad can they be when the Democratic legislature of said state actually makes him keep the promise to act like a Republican?

Ah well. It had a good run. Make a promise. Break it right away. Give people time to forget. Sell out your legislature in the process, but at least you have it good.

This is Column # DC40. Request permission to publish here.