Good Luck, New York

If you live in New York, you might as well bend over now:

ALBANY - Gov. Paterson's proposed $121 billion budget hits New Yorkers in their iPods - and nickels-and-dimes them in lots of other places, too.

Trying to close a $15.4 billion budget gap, Paterson called for 88 new fees and a host of other taxes, including an "iPod tax" that taxes the sale of downloaded music and other "digitally delivered entertainment services."

"We're going to have to take some extreme measures," Paterson said Tuesday after unveiling the slash-and-burn budget.

The proposal, which needs legislative approval, did not include broad-based income tax increases, but relied on smaller ones to raise $4.1 billion from cash-strapped New Yorkers.

Movie tickets, taxi rides, soda, beer, wine, cigars and massages would be taxed under Paterson's proposal. It also extends sales taxes to cable and satellite TV services and removes the tax exemption for clothes costing less than $110.

"The governor is nickel-and-diming working class families," said Ron Deutsch, executive director of New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, an advocacy group.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Republican groups are pledging to fight it:

Paterson aides say the budget represents a net gain for New York City, but Mayor Bloomberg wasn't buying it. He said it could cost the city more than $1 billion, including a $600 million reduction in school aid.

"I don't know that 100% of it is going to go the classroom, but a large percentage of any reduction we get from the state will go to the classroom," Bloomberg said. "That will mean larger class sizes and fewer services."

"Instead of raising taxes, we need to be reducing them," said Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco (R-Schenectady).

Paterson did not rule out income tax increases but said spending reductions are the priority. He also defended the fee and sales tax increases, saying they would be less harmful to the state's economy.

"If you start taxing at times when [revenues are] receding, you'll drive job creators out of the state," Paterson said.

Good luck to 'em.

This is the standard liberal mantra: tax, tax, tax.  Never mind that it will hurt everyone across the board, including lower-income people.  Never mind that higher taxes and costs will drive people to purchase these items elsewhere, thus leading to further deficits.  Never mind that they're still increasing spending at the same time.  It's a one-page playbook, and it consists entirely of tax, tax, tax.  It's a liberal thing.

Here's the gigantic warning signal: Obama and the Dem majority in Congress are the most Left-leaning liberals we've seen in this country in a very long time.  What happens when they start implementing these kinds of things across the entire country?

This is why liberalism is dangerous, and why they should never be given control of the country.  We seem to have forgotten the last few times that has happened, so we're going to have to learn the lesson again the hard way, for at least the next two years.  For all of you who voted for Obama and Democrats because you wanted change, this is on you.  You're going to get change: economic disaster, non-existent ethics, and total irrationality at the helm.

Way to go.  Thanks for that.

There's my two cents.