James Pethokoukis reminds us of the president’s recent statements on taxation and the needs of his aggressive welfare state and notices that we’re only about one-third of the way into the tax hike-fest of 2013. (Again I ask where exactly do the president’s fervent disciples believe the economic growth will come from?)

Pethokoukis writes:

How much more “balance” does Obama want?

1. Well, the fiscal cliff deal is a $620 billion tax hike, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Obama’s original offer to House Speaker John Boehner called for $1.6 trillion in tax hikes, including a) $960 billion in higher tax rates and higher taxes on investment income along with b) $600 billion in additional taxes, such as limiting tax breaks for wealthier Americans.

2. In a November policy memo, White House economists thought a tax hike of around $500 billion was doable via broadening the tax base.

3. Also recall that the president’s 2013 budget called for a $300 billion corporate tax hike.

So adding it all up, it would seem the president’s second term goal is for roughly $2 trillion in new taxes. We’re only one-third of the way there.

He concludes by noting:

What’s for sure is that the Obama desires vastly higher taxes to pay for his expanded welfare state. Desires and needs them. And it’s now Democrat economic theology that tax rates could return to pre-Reagan levels without hurting growth.

“Theology” is the right word; expectation of impending economic robustness is certainly not grounded in any empirically tested proposition, but it is accompanied by an ecstatic, hyperreligious zeal.