Rahm Emanuel proposes record-breaking set of tax hikes to save Chicago

As Chicago continues its long, slow, march toward becoming the new Detroit, there are a few things you can count on. Crime will go up, services will suffer, and progressives will demand more tribute from their subjects. They'll argue that increased taxation will save the city, they'll hike rates, and then they'll learnthat their refusal to solve underlying budgetary issues will only speed the implosion.

This has been the standard playbook employed by virtually every destitute left-wing dystopia in the United States and, lo-and-behold, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is doing everything in his power to make sure his city follows suit. He's proposing a slew of new taxes, including a massive $500 million property tax increase - a modern-era record - which will fund "most" of next year's city budget gap. As CBS Chicago reports, residents are less than thrilled:

Seventy people spoke in 100 minutes during the meeting, at Wright College in the Dunning neighborhood on the Northwest Side. Those who couldn’t be succinct were cut off before they had a chance to make their point; but plenty did so, mostly airing a variety of complaints. A handful of people voiced outrage about a proposal to fill most of next year’s budget gap through a $500 million property tax hike. “You raise the taxes, you’ll see a mass exodus of people getting the hell out of this goddamn city,” one man shouted. Earlier in the day, the mayor defended his push for a major property tax hike, acknowledging it would be a tough pill to swallow for taxpayers, but saying it’s necessary to shore up police and firefighter pension funds, restore the city’s worst-in-the-nation bond rating, and solve the city’s long-standing financial crisis.

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“This will be, obviously, difficult. And I don’t underestimate the difficulty. That’s why it’s going to be done in the most fair and progressive manner,” the mayor said.

If history is any indication, "a progressive manner" means: 1. Raise taxes, promising to "fix the city." 2. Make symbolic cuts that don't really solve your budget problems - diminish quality of services. 3. Shrink the tax base because people start leaving rather than be taxed to death in a substandard city. 4. Diminish the quality of services again to cover the smaller tax base. 5. Raise taxes promising to restore the quality of services. 6. Drive more people away, shrinking the tax base again. 7. Repeat until bankruptcy. We've seen this course of action play out in liberal cities and states all across the country. Detroit did it in the 70's, 80's, and 90's, Baltimore did it in the 2000's, and California is doing it as we speak. Evidently, like all progressives, Rahm has failed to learn from the failures of his far-left peers. All people like Rahm understand is taking and redistributing wealth. They don't create it, nor do they respect it. They demand you feed their failure-machine. Fixing the underlying issues will not be part of the conversation.