Humpty Dumpty on Capitol Hill

If “it was so, it might be,” said Tweedledee, “and if it were so, it would be, but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic.”

Apparently, many congressional Democrats and their sympathizers inhabit Tweedledee’s Wonderland when it comes to taxes. How else to reach the convoluted conclusion that allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire in 2010 doesn’t constitute a tax increase?

Beltway Democrats are extremely sensitive to accusations that they love higher taxes. But they also don’t want to extend the Bush tax cuts. If they get their way, Americans in the year 2012 will pay $400 billion more to the federal government.

Isn’t that a tax hike? Don’t be silly.

“Doing nothing and letting the current tax cuts expire is not an increase,” Charles Konigsberg, a bureaucrat for four years during the Clinton administration who now publishes a newsletter on the federal budget, told McClatchy Newspapers. “A tax increase is when you pass legislation to increase revenues.”

Using Mr. Konigsberg’s rationale, we mustn’t call the annual salary hikes for members of Congress “pay raises” because the system has been rigged so compensation is adjusted automatically without an actual on-the-record vote.

We’re sure Mr. Konigsberg’s logic will resonate with the tens of millions of Americans who will pay higher federal taxes if the Democrats refuse to make permanent the current federal rates.

” ‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’ “