All Tax Cuts All The Time

[marmar]

from OurFuture.org:



All Tax Cuts All The Time
By Sam Boyd

January 14th, 2008 - 8:45am ET


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Conservatives have a problem with originality. When your solution to every problem is tax cuts, life can get a bit dull. Economy doing well? Tax cuts. Economy doing poorly? Tax cuts. Cat peed on the rug? Tax cuts. You can just imagine Dick Cheney and Mitch McConnell sitting around:

  McConnell: What are we going to do tonight, Dick?
  Cheney: Same thing we do every night Mitch, try and take over the w--, er, cut taxes.

On some level this isn't too surprising. Conservatives think government should be smaller, so they want to cut taxes. Sure, it would make more sense to cut spending as well, but at least there's some logic to an all-tax-cuts-all-the-time position.

Here's the thing though: Conservatives don't say, “We think government should be smaller, so we want to cut taxes.” Instead, they shape their pitch based on the current economic conditions. Right now, the economy is doing poorly so tax cuts are “stimulus.” In 2001 we had a surplus, so we cut taxes because the government was supposedly taking in too much money. For conservatives, tax cuts are like duct tape—they can fix anything.

Before we get to deep in the weeds of tax policy, a quick word on the economy. Think Progress recently came up with seven economists who are predicting a recession and, as Dean Baker has pointed out, economists usually don't predict a recession until it's underway or even over. NPR's awesome On The Media did a great piece on the subject last weekend.

So, things aren't looking so good and it's not unreasonable for the government to look at ways to smooth the business cycle. However, given that tax revenues will tend to decline in bad economic times, a sensible policymaker would want to ensure that a stimulus plan produces the most possible stimulus for the least possible cost. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://ourfuture.org/blog-entry/all-tax-cuts-all-time

[nightrider767]

1. The Tax Reform Movement is nothing other ....

than a veiled tax-cut.