I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues

Stephen Moore on Feb 3, 2026

The Democrats circa 2026 have almost become tax-and-spend parodies of themselves.

They used to pretend that raising taxes was a last resort. Now, the leftwing base regards raising taxes as a badge of honor.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani declared last week that he has no other choice but to raise taxes on the rich and corporations because there aren't enough savings from efficiencies in agency budgets.

New York City spends more money per capita than any other major city in the country, but there's no way to save money. Uh-huh!

At least Mamdani was honest and campaigned as a socialist. The Manhattanites are getting exactly what they voted for.

But the two new rising stars of the party, Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger, the newly elected governors of New Jersey and Virginia, respectively, won what were thought to be tight races by comfortable margins. How? By running as middle-of-the-road centrists. That's what the voters in both states wanted.

Now these "moderates" are firing off tax increases like pellets from a BB gun on anything that moves.

In just her first weeks in office, Sherrill called for a 4.2-cents-per-gallon increase in the state's gas tax, a corporate tax to pay for transit, a new millionaire mansion tax and nicotine and sports betting taxes. And more to come. New Jersey is already one of the five highest-tax states.

But Sherrill is an anti-tax crusader compared to the Dem party leaders' new love interest for 2028: Spanberger. The maximum word count on these pages isn't high enough to list the catalog of "revenue raisers" she has endorsed in her first weeks in office. But here's a partial list:

-- Additional local sales tax in all Virginia counties and cities

-- New personal property tax on electric leaf blowers and electric landscaping equipment

-- Large employer tax

-- Gun and ammunition tax

-- New income tax brackets

-- Delivery tax, which would hit Amazon, Uber Eats, FedEx and UPS orders in Northern Virginia

-- Investment income tax

-- Event tax

-- Storage facility tax

-- Gym membership tax

-- Dog walking tax

-- Dog grooming tax

-- Counseling tax (for those distressed by all the new taxes?)

-- Digital personal property tax

-- New car taxes and highway use fees

-- Increase in the hotel tax in Arlington

-- Statewide speed cameras (not a tax, but more fines for drivers)

-- Vehicle repair tax

-- Home repair tax

-- Dry cleaning tax

A dog grooming tax? Really?

The Dems seem to be immune to the reality that Americans are fleeing high-tax states and cities. California, New York and New Jersey have lost almost 4 million net residents to low-tax states over the past decade. Most of the winning states, like Texas, Florida, Tennessee and the Carolinas, are cutting taxes, not raising them. Florida has gained $1 trillion in cumulative income from high-tax state refugees. The movers often can pay their mortgage just from the money they save on taxes by exiting blue states.

I've long argued that the Democrat states must change or die, and now they seem to be on a Bataan Death March of tax raising. In California, a proposed new wealth tax has already inspired a handful of Silicon Valley billionaires to exit the state. When will Democrats in blue states learn you can't tax millionaires and billionaires if they live in Palm Beach or Dallas?

Stephen Moore is a former Trump senior economic adviser and the cofounder of Unleash Prosperity, which advocates for education freedom for all children.