Modern conservatism has disagreed about austerity policy from the time of Herbert Hoover. Does growth come first or does budget balancing come first? During Hoover's time, the budget balancers were on top, and Hoover raised taxes in the face of falling revenues at the start of the Great Depression, making things much much worse.
Even here on RMG, principled conservatives have made an effort to convince others that tax increases were inevitable. One heroic example raised by these folks has been the British Conservative party, which found itself in office on a kind of shared sacrifice platform. Unfortunately the Brits' efforts to get more money, however self-sacrificial, seem to have failed:
The Treasury received £10.35 billion in income tax payments from those paying by self-assessment last month, a drop of £509 million compared with January 2011. Most other taxes produced higher revenues over the same period.
Senior sources said that the first official figures indicated that there had been "manoeuvring" by well-off Britons to avoid the new higher rate. The figures will add to pressure on the Coalition to drop the levy amid fears it is forcing entrepreneurs to relocate abroad.
