House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has made it clear many times she is a "tax-and-spend" liberal. Just recently, she did so once again.
A special 12-person congressional committee, with members from both the House and Senate, has been working on a plan to reduce the federal spending deficit by $1.2 trillion over 10 years. If the panel does not make recommendations Congress can approve by Thanksgiving, automatic spending cuts will be triggered.
But liberals and conservatives on the committee reportedly are split. Most Democrats want tax increases along with spending cuts to reduce the deficit. Republicans oppose tax increases.
That prompted Pelosi, D-Calif., to tell reporters a plan with no tax increases will not be acceptable to her and other liberal lawmakers. "Fairness has to be a prerequisite for it," she insisted.
Pelosi's idea of fairness clearly is to allow the government to keep growing - at the expense of jobs created by the private sector. Remember, federal spending has doubled during the past decade, with much of that coming during President Barack Obama's administration.
And consider this: Meeting the $1.2 trillion target without tax increases would require a cut of $120 billion a year - only about 3 percent of projected spending for the coming year.
Fairness is not forcing Americans to pay higher taxes at a time when the economy needs all the help it can get. Members of the special committee should drop any discussion of increasing the tax burden.
