Tax & Spend Politics: Bizarro Rhetoric at its Best

Happy Tax Day! Why is it happy? Well, according to the non-partisan Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, "Middle-income Americans are now paying federal taxes at or near historically low levels." The linked article also reports that "Even conservative economic analysts acknowledge that there really is no basis for middle- and working-class Americans to believe that they're suddenly paying more." Hurrah! We've achieved bipartisan consensus on taxes, an issue that is usually rife with political divisiveness. So, once again, Happy Tax Day, America! In fact, a parade is passing through Washington DC on this very day to celebrate our good fortune and thank the President who generated much of these tax savings.

What? It's not a parade? It's a rally? Oh, you mean, like a Woodstock kind of rally--peace, love, and reduced taxes? No? It's a protest rally? Why are they ruining Happy Tax Day with some random protest? Oh...wait, it's an ANTI-TAX protest... So let me see if I get this--they're against lower taxes? Oh, they *think* they're paying higher taxes, or will *someday* be paying higher taxes, or... My head is starting to hurt.

Here we go again. Republican and Teabaggers' annual descent into Wonderland on the issue of taxation and budget deficits. Even in the face of overwhelming evidence that the current administration has reduced taxes and passed a health care reform plan that's fiscally responsible, the threadbare, ragged banner of "tax and spend" rhetoric is waved again. This time, the arguments are based on speculative future taxation that has not yet occurred but "eventually" will. This is the drum being beaten today by the courageous Karl Rove (his memoir is titled Courage and Consequence so he must be courageous, right?). Captain Courage writes that increased levies against the pharmaceutical, insurance, and medical industries "eventually will hit ordinary Americans" and that "higher business taxes are eventually paid by those who buy goods and services." When one removes Rove's crutch of eventualities, what he's actually admitting is something like this: "Okay, taxes on ordinary Americans have not increased at all, but I'm actually concerned about tax hikes on rich people and big business, but I know have to somehow talk about ordinary Americans, so I'll talk about future taxes that don't exist and therefore can't be denied." Well, where's the courage in dodgy rhetoric like that?

What's driving people like Rove bananas is that, this time, Obama and the Democrats have refused to give in to the usual rhythms of tax and spend politics. After the Reagan administration left the country deep in red ink, President Clinton did the what seemed like the responsible thing and pursued deficit reduction policies in lieu of major program initiatives. The result was a budget surplus. In comes George W. Bush and, eight years later, after tax cuts for the wealthy and military adventures, the surplus was long gone and the red ink was back. The expectation by many conservatives was that Obama, like Clinton, would "do the right thing," be forced to capitulate his policy ambitions to the tax and spend cycle, and pursue only "small ball" initiatives. He didn't. He pushed for comprehensive health care reform and won. Consciously or unconsciously, Obama and Congressional Democrats finally recognized that if they did nothing to disrupt the existing rhythms of tax and spend politics, they would never achieve significant policy reform again. With the stroke of a pen, Obama ended the cycle of "we spend/you tax (or be paralyzed by budget deficits). Democrats now have health care reform and tax cuts, and that reality forces their opponents to conjure up the Ghost of Taxes to Come as this year's campaign bogeyman. Thank God we have Captain Courage to protect us.