Taxes

This might be a good time to step back and look at the big picture in the presidential campaign, where Obama's making his foremost argument for re-election based on hiking tax rates for the "rich".

In the big picture, Democrats represent the bureaucracy.  Their interest is in protecting and growing that bureaucracy, therefore they have to raise more funds to pay the salaries and pensions for their constituencies in those posh DC offices.  A Democrat can't imagine any problem ever being solved without the intervention of their benevolent management.  For them, there is no such thing as an unnecessary, duplicative, or wasteful government agency.  Their compassion is reserved first and foremost for their compatriots and supporters holding down those featherbed jobs in places like Agriculture, Education, Energy, Environment, and the rest of the alphabet soup of "necessary" government agencies.

Republicans are wary of the bureaucracy, but despite running for office with the stated goal of reining in the bureaucrats, tend to join the party shortly after settling inside the beltway.  The GOP philosophy begins with the theory that our country doesn't have a tax problem, but a spending problem.  Unfortunately, their constituents can't seem to control their apparent inability to keep the faith of that philosophy once they climb into the big-boy chair.

The campaign arguments are laughably simplistic, and neither is likely to actually solve the problem of massive deficits and debt.  Obama's the most dishonest, suggesting to his minions that he can go on exploding the bureaucracy by simply raising the tax rate 5 percent on the "rich".  His rhetoric defines the rich as multi-millionaires and billionaires, but his math-challenged rate increase is targeted to people with incomes as low as $200K. 

Romney's being somewhat coy about his plans, but at least we know enough to realize his tax reform policies will be modest at best.  He supports much of Paul Ryan's budgetary reforms and suggests he believes in lowering and flattening rates while removing loopholes in the tax code.  Assuming he prevails in November, I hold very little hope that the reform part of his plan will become reality.  His beltway culture-corrupted GOP colleagues will stop him from removing those loopholes if the Democrats don't.

Although neither candidate is serious about solving the problem, at least Romney's not lying outright about his plans.  I think the economy recovery will begin the day Romney is declared the winner, and by the time he's inaugurated will be visibly heating up.  That's because businesses know that Romney will roll back the most egregious of Obama's overreaching regulations, and he will put the breaks on the massive tax increases built into Democrats' laws and initiatives due to go into effect January 1st.

Executives nearly everywhere I go have made it clear that they've been in a holding pattern, waiting and hoping that Obama will get turned out of office.  They'll start investing and growing again once they have confidence that the government won't hammer them with even more tax and regulation.

So if you lean left and fear Romney, I can almost guarantee that you have little to fear.  Romney's not going to shake things up much.  If you're on the right and are hoping for a big u-turn in government tax and regulatory policies, likewise I predict you will be disappointed in Romney, but you will comfort yourself with the thought, "at least he's not Obama".