|
Tax cuts - a faith based initiative
For the Bush administration tax cuts are the true faith based initiative.
- - - - - - - - - -
by Dwight Meredith
 ARREN BUFFETT has come out against the Bush tax cuts explaining, "We are going to spend $2.2 trillion this year; it's just a question of where it comes from. And, frankly, I don't think enough of it comes from people like me and too much comes from people who work in our shoe factories." Buffett continues, "(Bush) is not changing the amount the American public sends the government, just changing who does it."
The right wing spin machine was quick to attack Buffett for his statements on the basis of being partisan and self-serving. Rush Limbaugh dismissed the opinion of the most successful investor in history as "standard issue liberal claptrap."
The attacks on Buffett are not surprising. Certain elements of the Republican Party are intent on attacking anyone who does not carefully toe the Bush line on tax cuts.
When the economy was roaring along in the late 1990s, Mr. Bush put together his tax cut proposal. When the economy softened, Mr. Bush believed the same tax cut was needed to ensure against recession. When the recession happened anyway, the tax cut was the prescribed remedy. When the tax cut failed to revive the economy, Mr. Bush advocated additional tax cuts.
|
The Club For Growth ran television ads against Republican Maine Senator Olympia Snowe comparing her opposition to Bush's tax cut plan to French opposition to the war in Iraq. Did Snowe want to increase taxes? No, her sin was in wanting to cut "only" $350 billion of taxes over 10 years instead of the President's $726 billion proposal.
George Voinovich, Republican Senator from Ohio, is concerned about the effect of a $726 billion tax cut on the deficit. Like Snowe, he supports tax cuts in the $350 billion range. The President went to Ohio to campaign against a fellow Republican in order to put pressure on Voinovich to forget about the deficit and support the tax cut.
The administration has claimed that the tax cut proposal would create 1.4 million jobs. When Paul Krugman noted in a column that at a price tag of $726 billion, that works out to more than $500,000 per job, NRO ran a piece by Donald Luskin calling Krugman a liar. See this post for the details. The Luskin piece went on to misrepresent the contents of a Council of Economic Advisor's Report and to simply make stuff up in order to attempt to discredit Krugman's simple statement of a mathematical truth.
The administration is promoting the tax cut as a way to stimulate the economy and create jobs. Any fair evaluation of the plan, however, shows that it is a slow, inefficient and costly method of attempting to reach that goal. Brad DeLong wonders why the administration does not propose a real stimulus package:
One of the strangest things about the George W. Bush administration is its refusal to propose a stimulus package that would actually stimulate the economy. Nobody believes that this is an administration that would decide that it is more important to pursue economic policies that are good for the country as opposed to those that generate good employment news in the summer and fall of 2004. And here what is good for the country--short-term fiscal stimulus--and what is good for President George W. Bush's reelection chances are perfectly aligned.
So why the continued focus on policies that all serious analysts agree have little effect on employment in the short term? It's a total mystery. It's as if the economists have been unable to persuade anybody else in the White House that economic policies, like, affect, you know, the economy.
Matthew Yglesias has similar thoughts:
Of course all this leads one to wonder why the administration doesn't just get behind an economic stimulus package that would actually stimulate the economy by giving a short-term spurt of cash to the low-income Americans who would spend it? Some possibilities:
1. They've started to believe their own propaganda and think that they're tax program really will have the effects they attribute to it.
2. They're more concerned about cutting taxes than staying in power.
3. They don't think fiscal policy makes a difference and regard it as some kind of pointless nihilistic exercise.
4. They're unaware of the fact that unemployment is unpopular.
Two riddles are posed. First, why must certain elements of the right wing attack anyone and everyone who deviates in even the slightest degree from the tax cut agenda? Secondly, if the goal is to stimulate the economy, why has the administration not proposed an actual stimulus plan?
We think that the answers to both riddles are found in the fact that, for some, support for tax cuts is akin to a religious belief.
Religious faith is constant in all circumstances. For some, belief in the appropriateness of tax cuts is also constant. When the economy was roaring along in the late 1990s, Mr. Bush put together his tax cut proposal. When the economy softened, Mr. Bush believed the same tax cut was needed to ensure against recession. When the recession happened anyway, the tax cut was the prescribed remedy. When the tax cut failed to revive the economy, Mr. Bush advocated additional tax cuts. If faced with a problem, religion counsels prayer. If prayer does not provide the answer, religion counsels more prayer. Mr. Bush's record on tax cuts is similar.
The reason that the administration does not propose an actual stimulus package is that its policy has nothing to do with economics or public policy. It is not intended to stimulate the economy or stimulate jobs. The administration's tax cuts proposal is simply an affirmation of faith. The rest is just marketing.
|
The condition of the federal budget does not affect the belief in tax cuts. When the budget was in surplus, Mr. Bush recommended tax cuts to promote fairness. Now that the budget is in deficit, Mr. Bush recommends more tax cuts to stimulate the economy.
In times of peace, Mr. Bush's faith prescribes tax cuts. Faith is not build on a foundation of sand and during time of war, the answer remains tax cuts.
If the need for government revenue to pay for the retirement of the baby boomers is a long way off, the proper course is tax cuts. As the call on governmental resources becomes closer, tax cuts again are the answer.
Religion teaches adherents to place faithfulness to the teachings of the church above other concerns. So it is with the adherents of the faith of the tax cut.
Ronald Reagan advocated the 11th Commandment of "Thou shall not criticize a fellow Republican." As the experience of Senators Snowe and Voinovich demonstrate, the 11th Commandment must give way to the gospel of tax cuts.
Republicans once were wedded to the idea of balanced budgets. They even thought that the policy of balanced budgets should be enshrined in the Constitution of the United States. A balanced budget, however, has been trumped by the fervor for ever more tax cuts.
Republicans also swore allegiance to protecting the Social Security system by not using surplus Social Security tax receipts to finance the general operations of government. Once again, that policy bowed to the belief in tax cuts.
Republicans once were concerned about the fiscal health of the States. The States now face the greatest fiscal crisis since the Great Depression. The administration, however, refuses to help the states because doing so would require funds that could otherwise be sued for tax cuts.
No promise, principle or problem can change the belief in tax cuts. No economic, budgetary or foreign policy circumstance can negate the call for ever more tax cuts.
When tax cuts are viewed as a religious belief, we have answers to the riddles posed above. The reason that the administration does not propose an actual stimulus package is that its policy has nothing to do with economics or public policy. It is not intended to stimulate the economy or stimulate jobs. The administration's tax cuts proposal is simply an affirmation of faith. The rest is just marketing.
The reason that Buffett, Snowe, Voinovich and Krugman are attacked is that they are heretics. By questioning the core teaching of the one true belief, they have committed heresy and like Galileo, they must be punished.
For the Bush administration tax cuts are the true faith based initiative.
Reprinted from P.L.A.
|
