Why does the Democratic Party support higher taxes and more government?
Disclaimer: political parties in the United States generally lacked the kind of ideological unity and discipline found in other Western countries, so it is problematic to claim the Democratic Party or Democrats support any particular ideological platform when, in fact, they may vary intensely (as may Republicans). The question misstates fact. In actuality, Democrats generally support lower taxes where possible. The tradeoff will always be whether one wants the government to do more, such as maintaining Social Security, inspecting our food, enforcing our laws or keeping our roads and bridges in good repair. You only get what you pay for and you must pay for what you get. Most of us want more of these services. Currently, we are about a trillion dollars behind on infrastructure repairs according to a major engineering society. Cutting back further imperils us all. Tax withholding has actually gone down under a portion of the Stimulus program, a fact that Republicans have studiously avoided. That puts more money in your pocket right now. There is some support for a rise in personal taxes for those making in excess of $250,000 on amounts over that which puts their tax level back where it was when Clinton was President. We were pretty prosperous then and we balanced our budget. Fact: if all tax cuts were abandoned, we’d pay down our entire US debt in less than ten years! Fact: our debt is lower, as related to our Gross Domestic Product than half of all Western Countries. Our credit rating is so good that we just issued bonds paying no effective interest! Government under Obama has not grown, but it did grow significantly under two Republican standard bearers: Reagan and Bush II. Dems do, however, support increased regulation to reign in corporate abuse of individuals. Abuse is best illustrated in regard to two pieces of legislation bitterly fought by Republicans: health insurance and financial reform. In these cases, the regulations coming from them will stop abusive rate increases and caps on coverage on the health side and abusive fees and interest rate increases on the financial side. By the way, there never were death panels! Also, the efficiencies included in the health law should save the taxpayers about a trillion dollars in the next ten years.