Ernest I. Cornbrooks III, a Salisbury, Maryland attorney, wrote the following letter-to-the-editor in the Daily Times. Cornbrooks suggests Democrats seek to control via public handouts and support programs -- bribing the public with its own money. What do you think?

In Washington, Annapolis and Wicomico County, Democrats are in a snit. They cannot control enough of the taxpayers' money to lavish favors on those constituencies of the electorate whose votes they need.

The Democrat-dominated political class discovered, as de Tocqueville anticipated, that it can bribe the public with its own money. Democrats have become addicted to buying votes rather than persuading voters through the merits of their policies. Public employees, unions, the public education establishment, contractors specializing in "infrastructure" and others are addicted to receiving bribes. Members of the electorate not dependent on government money are successfully resisting this way of doing business, and the result is "deadlock."

The Obama regime claims if it cannot raise taxes on the wealthy (families making more than $250,000 a year), there will be not be an increase in the number of well-paid public-sector employees, bridges will fall down, college graduates will have to pay back money they which borrowed -- and the world will end shortly thereafter.

Maryland finished the most recent fiscal year with a billion-dollar surplus, but Gov. Martin O'Malley and the Democrat leadership want a 15-cent gasoline tax increase, which will please both the Democrat-oriented "greenies" and unions involved in highway contruction.

Locally, Democrats blame the revenue cap (which voters approved by more than 2-1, despite opposition from the Democrat-oriented teachers union) for the imminent demise of public education. In the United States, per-pupil spending, adjusted for inflation, has almost tripled since 1970. It is reasonable to impute a similar per-pupil spending increase to Wicomico County. The government school system says it needs more money, even though more money has not improved government education in the past.

Democrat tax increases are invariably linked to spending targeted to benefit Democrat constituencies. These bribes are often presented as "freebies."

Consider the jubilation that occurs when politicians announce "government grants" for local projects. Democrats proclaim "justice" and "fairness" to conceal their villainy, but it is time to call Democrat tax-and-spend policies what they are: bribery.

» Ernest I. Cornbrooks III is a Salisbury attorney.