"Tax-and-spend liberal" is an insult to Democrats in the political arena, but hey-- if it taxes like a liberal, and spends like a liberal, then it must be a tax-and-spend liberal. But some liberals should earn a special designation.

Taxing and spending is one thing when the economy is booming. It's still foolish economically, but at least during those times it's not prescribed as a solution to the debt.

But to propose taxing and spending to get us out of a recession? That's hard core.

The credit goes to Rep. Jan Shakowsky of the Chicago area. While she proposed cutting $143 billion in spending, mostly on defense, she also would also spend $200 billion in new spending "investments". According to Politico:

The money would go to states to avoid tax increases or spending cuts, to build infrastructure, and continue unemployment benefits. Schakowsky proposes the new spending as an addendum to her deficit-cutting.

 She wants to "invest" in a bailout to the states, so they can continue wasting money on unemployment and other social programs.

At the same time, she'd raise taxes on bonds and capital gains, and establish a cap-and-trade program. Schakowsky says she'd reduce the budget by $427 billion in 2015.

This is how a tax-and-spend liberal's mind works. Let's say a liberal is a small business owner (yes, I know it's a stretch, but play along). The business has $2 million in annual revenue, derived from sales of 200,000 widgets that each are priced at $10. But it also has $3 million in annual expenses, for a deficit of $1 million. How does the liberal plan to come up with the extra mil? By raising the price of each widget by $5, or 50 percent! On paper, that's 200,000 units at 5 bucks each, for an even mil. Problem solved.

Let's say people don't want to pay $15 for a widget that cost $10 last year, and 50 percent of them decide they don't need a widget or they buy them somewhere else.

Now her sales are 100,000 widgets at $15, or $1.5 million. She's lost half-a-million dollars in revenue.

When businesses need to make money, they lower prices to encourage economic activity. Have you ever heard of a coupon, Rep. Schakowsky? At this point, a lesson on the Laffer Curve is in order. Read up on it here.

Incidentally, I interviewed the Republican opponent she defeated a couple of weeks ago--he's the Harvard student that dared to question Barney Frank about his role in the nation's financial meltdown. Read it here.