The geezers among us (myself included) remember Robert Wagner stealing his way to fame in a Cold War TV show called “It Takes a Thief.” Unless the writers? strike messes it up, Hollywood is hell-bent on another remake ? this time starring Will Smith.
Both TV show and movie incorporate the same theme. The star of our show is a top-notch crook who is promised a get-out-of-jail-free card if he steals for the government, not from it.
Marylanders who witnessed our legislative special session should be familiar with this plot. Here we seldom throw such people into prison. We re-elect them instead. (Note: Former Democratic state Sen. Thomas Bromwell Sr. was unusually greedy, even for a Maryland politician.)
Most of the time, our officials don?t steal for their own direct gain. Sure, they take our money and spend it as if it?s their own. They just call that “government.” If they spent it on gambling and hookers, we?d call that theft. I?d call it an improvement. Even the General Assembly can?t run up a tab of $1.4 billion on poker and … that?s enough of that analogy.
But steal they did, and they weren?t even embarrassed about it. The front page of The Washington Post ran an Associated Press photo of our leaders cheering their own unsurprising victory. (The Democratic governor got ridiculous taxes through the Democratic legislature. Shocker!) The photo showed Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller and House Speaker Michael E. Busch celebrating. In between was Gov. Martin O?Malley pumping his fist in the air. He might as well have been giving the finger to the entire population of Maryland.
He was.
Imagine the hubris, the contempt for voters and taxpayers. Instead of respectfully acknowledging the easy win, O?Malley rubbed it in the face of every one of us doomed to pay more when we eat, buy gas or do anything other than breathe inMaryland.
Gun thugs have more class.
They also steal from far fewer people. Let?s look at who the O?Malley gang decided to rob.
First we have, well, everybody.
They raised the sales tax from 5 percent to 6 percent. Since apparently no Democrat in Annapolis can do math, that?s a 20 percent increase. Take that, poor people. And if you smoke, the tax went up from $1 a pack to $2. Lord knows no poor people smoke.
If they do, screw them.
They expanded the tax to computer services because they can?t have something untaxed. Buy a new car? They get you on that one as well.
To top it off, they soak businesses and the rich. People can easily move next door to three states better and more cheaply run. Businesses will simply go out of business.
If it happened on a street corner, bystanders would be shouting: “Stop! Thief!” Instead, it happened in Annapolis, and we consider it typical.
Now, the regular session is just a few weeks away.
Stop! Thief!
In politics, that only works if a lot of us say it.
Dan Gainor can be seen each week on Thursday afternoons on the new Fox Business Network. He is the T. Boone Pickens free market fellow at the Media Research Center?s Business & Media Institute, a career journalist and media commentator. He can be reached at [email protected].
