[American Thinker] In 1992, Ross Perot famously stated that NAFTA would cause a "giant sucking sound" as jobs and industries fled the U.S. for Mexico. For years, progressive Vermont's bloated bureaucracy has increased regulations, social programs, and income and real estate taxes in the fantasy that the rich can just be taxed more to achieve every imagined social good. But the COVID-19 crisis has pulled aside the fiscal veil, and now the Green Mountain State is careening into the red. A "giant sucking sound" is heard from Vermonters fleeing the state.Vermont has stubbornly avoided funding its state pension system. It "boasts" the second highest per-pupil school costs in America, the fourth highest health care costs, and the fourth highest welfare benefits. Unsurprisingly, it also distinguishes itself as the 49th worst business climate and the only state to have its credit rating downgraded in 2019 — when economic times were relatively good.
Liberals scoff at supply-side economics (the idea that cutting taxes causes a "trickle-down effect" that boosts investment, income, and ultimately tax receipts). But taxes do matter.