Democrats' New Worry: Their Own Rich Voters

[question everything]

JULY 20, 2009

Democrats' New Worry: Their Own Rich Voters

By JONATHAN WEISMAN
WSJ

A group of Democrats elected in recent years from some of the country's richest congressional districts have emerged as a stumbling block to raising taxes on the wealthy to pay for President Barack Obama's ambitious health-care overhaul just as the plan has begun to meet increasing resistance over its cost. Friday, two freshmen representatives -- Dina Titus, from suburban Las Vegas, and Colorado's Jared Polis, representing Boulder, Vail and some of the tonier suburbs of Denver -- joined Republicans to vote against Mr. Obama's top-priority health-care overhaul when it faced a vote in their House Education and Labor Committee. One reason was a one-percentage point-surtax on couples earning between $350,000 and $500,000 -- gradually increasing to 5.4 percentage points on earnings more than $1 million -- to pay for it. The bill passed the committee anyway, but if the number of Democratic defectors grows it could pose a serious obstacle to the president.

Also on Friday a busload of freshmen Democrats went to the White House to plead their case against sharp tax increases with the president and his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. The organizer was Rep. Gerald Connolly, the president of the freshman class whose Northern Virginia district is the richest in the U.S. as measured by median household income. Election gains in some of these affluent regions have helped give Democrats big majorities in the House and Senate. Of the 25 richest districts, 14 are represented by Democrats, according to Congressional Quarterly. In 1995, Democrats represented just five of those districts. Recently elected Democrats from higher-income areas also have been cautious about legislation that would make it easier for labor unions to organize, and about legislation imposing tough new rules on banks. Republicans have savaged the new Democrats for supporting legislation to stem global warming by capping greenhouse-gas emissions, then forcing polluters to purchase and trade emissions credits -- a "cap and tax," the GOP says.

But planned tax increases are likely the source of the toughest intra-Democratic tensions. The president wants to allow George W. Bush's income-tax cuts to expire in 2011 for families earning at least $250,000 and to stop the estate tax from being repealed next year. Mr. Obama also campaigned on putting an additional payroll tax of two to four percentage points on incomes above $250,000 to help put Social Security back on solid footing. As the president confronts a surging budget deficit and presses his ambitious agenda, all those tax increases may be necessary to make ends meet. All together, Democratic plans could push the top tax rate to 47%, the highest level since the tax code was rewritten in 1986.

(snip)

Mr. Connolly, the Northern Virginia representative, has a different calculation. Households earning at least $200,000 represent 14% of his district, "and they all vote," he said... The tax issue is presenting many new Democrats with a quandary as they struggle to get their political footing. "These members are going to have to make their own determinations on how to balance these interests," said Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and himself a representative of the affluent suburbs of Washington.

(snip)

But as Democrats who served in Congress in 1994 will attest, the game changes when abstractions on taxing the rich turn to reality. President Bill Clinton's 1993 deficit-reduction plan largely focused tax increases on the rich, but the collateral damage on Democrats was broad. And nobody wants to be the next Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, the suburban Philadelphia House freshman who cast the deciding vote on the Clinton budget, only to be swept from office the next year. "I never should have been asked to take that vote, ever," said Ms. Margolies-Mezvinsky, who now runs Women's Campaign International, a Philadelphia-based group with a mission to empower women politically. Since the 1994 GOP sweep, districts like Ms. Margolies-Mezvinsky's have swung back to the Democrats. For 14 years, Republican Tom Davis represented most of Northern Virginia's Fairfax and Prince William counties. Now, Fairfax and Prince William belong to Mr. Connolly. Rep. John Hall took over the Hudson River Valley suburbs of New York after defeating veteran Republican Sue Kelly in 2006.

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124804459318663479.html (subscription)

[DJ13]

1. This highlights exactly whats wrong with our current political system

Elected officials (in either party) are more concerned with their reelection than with doing whats right for their own constituents.

The figure they can vote against their voters best interests then fill the airwaves with corporate donor paid for bullshit and keep their jobs in the next election.

[billyoc]

2. Noblesse oblige only goes so far, I guess.

[bluestateguy]

3. Rich people who vote for Democrats are willing to pay more

They have higher levels of education, so they know that they pay more in taxes when a Democrat is in office than a Republican. They vote Democratic for other reasons than taxes.

It's not like Obama didn't warn them in the campaign that he would repeal the Bush tax cuts. Yet he carried voters making over $200,000, by a margin of 52%-46%.

[timeforpeace]

4. They will come around eventually.

[trumanh59639]

5. I wouldn't worry too much

Dems in general are FAR less odious than the right