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R.I.P. Tax Revolt?
R.I.P. TAX REVOLT?....It's been increasingly chic in liberal circles over the past year or so to declare the death of the tax revolt. Born in California in 1978, raised to adulthood by Ronald Reagan, given a second wind by George Bush, and now, finally, ready to retire from public life. For example, here was Mark Schmitt early last year:
The truth is that we are heading down a path toward fiscal crisis that will inevitably require a major increase in revenues. In case that sounds like a euphemism, I'll say it plainly: Taxes must go up. If Democrats try to avoid that fact, they'll become mired in trench warfare with Republicans over small-bore increases that will cost them political support and won't really address the problem. But if Democrats seize the opportunity to define a new era of the politics of taxes, as Republicans did 30 years ago, they can shape the debate in a way that may actually help them to achieve some of their most-cherished policy goals.
So how's that going? At the time I remember thinking that Mark's piece was fairly persuasive, but the 2008 campaign sure doesn't seem to bear it out. Barack Obama, the progressive candidate, has certainly not campaigned on tax increases. In fact, he has loudly and consistently based his campaign almost entirely on a promise to cut taxes for 95% of Americans. He could probably fund the national debt for the price of the ads touting his tax cutting credentials. Amidst all that, the only teensy weensy concession he's made to higher taxes is an increase — all the way to 1990s levels! — for the highest earning 5%.
This is, of course, about as moderate a tax policy as you could possibly hope for. But even so, he's only barely gotten away with it. The response from the McCain campaign to that teensy weensy increase has been to go completely ballistic, accusing Obama of everything from socialism to Marxism to wanting to firebomb Joe the Plumber's cozy little Ohio cottage. In the end, it looks like this barrage of inanity won't work, but conservatives are sticking to it and they really do seem to be getting at least some traction with it. If Obama had nodded even slightly further in the direction of tax hikes, there's a good chance McCain would be making serious inroads on him right about now.
There's not much question that, eventually, taxes are going to have to go up. George Bush has ensured that. But it looks like we've been a little premature in declaring the end of the tax revolt. Apparently it still has few last gasps left in it.
Well, the righttards already *know* he's going to raise taxes, so if he's considering it, he may as well not be a gutless coward and tell us about it.
I can see some universal health care programs not requiring a tax increase, but I don't know if Obama's qualifies.
I wonder how we pay for the $2 f'n Trillion dollars bailout to bail out your neighbors home and your property values and give bankers their $100 BILLION in Christmas Bonuses without raising taxes, either now or by putting it on the backs of my daughters.
But I also do wonder about suggesting we raise taxes as we enter the coming global superdepression. I think Hoover tried it and found it sucks.
Biden declared that paying taxes is patriotic. Thank you Joe! Please bring this attitude to the White House.
The notion that small businesses (along with the rest of us) don't need the infrastructure that taxes bring is foolish -- communication systems, travel infrastructure, defense, a legal system, etc, etc. Our economy will not be competitive if our foundations are crumbling. Pay your taxes!
Bush raised taxes when he started spending like a drunken sailor. But Republicans are too cowardly to say so.
The tax revolt started in 1776 and will be with us as long as America as a country. Our anti-tax campaign rhetoric notwithstanding, we raise taxes every so often as circumstances dictate. Reagan did it. Bush I did it. Clinton did it. And more than likely Obama will do it.
Obama's tax plan shouldn't be taken seriously as a policy proposal. It's a campaign gimmick that basically takes Bill Clinton's 1992 tax cut and doubles down on it. Since Clinton won 2 terms and Obama looks certain to win at least 1, that's pretty smart politics. Nobody should be shocked when he announces in his State of the Union address that the $1 trillion deficits we face have forced him to postpone cutting taxes for everybody making under $250,000.
But wouldn't right now be a bad time to raise taxes, just as it's a bad time to cut spending?
It's patriotic to support the troops. What better way to support them then to pay their costs, and not just leave them for our children.
Isn't it time we ask something of ourselves to get out of this mess?
There's not much question that, eventually, taxes are going to have to go up. George Bush has ensured that.
Ensured it? Hell, he mandated it, by signing into law his tax cuts with sunset clauses.
Now he and dishonest Republicans -- but I repeat myself -- whine that letting the Bush tax cuts for the rich sunset amounts to a tax increase. If so, they're a tax increase Bush and the Republicans in Congress already enacted.
But wouldn't right now be a bad time to raise taxes, just as it's a bad time to cut spending?
It might be a good time to raise taxes on some (the rich), and also to increase spending. I don't know for sure, but it seems to me that the larger problem is trying to balance the budget in a recession, no matter how you do it.
Old joke:
Q: How do you balance the budget in a recession?
A: You don't, you get down off a duck.
He promised that in his first term he would not raise taxes on those making under $250K. He will immediately offer tax cuts for those making under that limit. He will allow tax cuts for those making over $250K to lapse (by GOP terms, actively raising taxes).
He's promised to raise taxes on those sending jobs overseas. And on oil companies.
What are taxes he can still raise? Corporate taxes. Taxes on those making over $250K (actively raising it with new legislation). Dividend taxes. Inheritance "death" taxes for estates valued over $1M. Etc. Just cutting corporate loopholes would raise huge amounts of cash. He'll want to hold off on most of this until the economy recovers a bit, which might not be for a while.
We can start with tax breaks for rich people. Republicans want welfare for the upper class: a lower capital gains tax rate, mostly just rewarding speculators. (A serious effort to help start-up investment would credit only initial investment input.)
Are you kidding? Tax breaks are now a mainstay of the "liberal" politics of Barack Obama. Borrow-and-spend is so much more appealing than the traditional Dem tax-and-spend because taxes can be deferred to descendants.
Wasn't there some initiative on the ballot in CA a few years back that would have slightly loosened up Prop 13 to help local governments or something? I remember that it got shot down by a pretty heavy margin.
For all the talk about the end of the Republican revolution, they've essentially won on a number of their key issues, most particularly taxes and guns.
Most of the culture war stuff hasn't gone their way though.