How’s That for Gratitude?

“Congress weighs end to tax break for hedge funds,” says the headline from today’s New York Times. Apparently Democrats are planning a huge tax increase on hedge-fund operators.

A story from Bloomberg News service last August said this: “Democrats are collecting more than two-thirds of the campaign donations from employees of the biggest hedge funds and buyout firms, as the party taps into one of Wall Street’s fastest-growing sources of wealth.”

So, how’s that for gratitude?

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that the Democrats were going to find ways to raise taxes on most Americans. They don’t have to say anything. That’s what they do.

But these smart hedge-fund operators really deserve what they are getting from the Democratic majority that they largely delivered. 

One of the largest hedge-fund operators, George Soros, made it his mission in life to bring the Democrats to power. Now he is going to pay for it, over and over again.

The business community should take notice, but I doubt they will.

They will continue to contribute to Democrats, hoping that the Democrats who take their money won’t screw them. Guess what? You are going to get screwed anyway.

Democrats have a radically different philosophy than Republicans when it comes to the role of business and entrepreneurship. Democrats believe that the government’s job is to redistribute the wealth created by the entrepreneurs. Republicans (most of them, anyway) believe that government should largely act as a facilitator to allow free enterprise to flourish.

On issue after issue, from energy to prescription drugs to tax policy, these different philosophies play out. Democrats want to punish business, Republicans want to promote it.

It will be interesting to see if the hedge-fund operators will wise up after this newest effort to raise taxes hits them the hardest. And it will be more interesting to if the largest business political action committees continue the trend of playing both sides in the hopes that they will escape the lash of the Democratic majority.