Taxes: Lower, lower, lower…
One thing that bugs me to death about the right wing is the absolute insistance on lower taxes and smaller government. Back in the days when I was a Republican (the dark ages) I would go to conventions and listen to people preach this stuff over and over like they read it from the Bible and that nobody had ever said it before. I found it very hard to relate to those people.
I have a lot more in common with a Teddy Roosevelt than I do a Ronald Reagan. In general, I like low taxes and small government because I want citizens to be able to chose to do what they want so long as it doesn’t harm others, but you can only go so far. There is a lot of economic regulation that the government does that I believe is good. And anytime the country or a state goes into a recession, what is the eternal Republican cure? Lower taxes! Good grief!
I appreciate your thoughts – I always feel nervous when I hear members of any party campaigning on absolutely lowering taxes and absolutely no new ones. I guess my question is always, “But what if a good program comes up that will help our citizens that we should fund”? As a poor college student, I don’t want to pay more without reason, so, at first, these political promises seem….well….promsing. I think I like most what Colin Powell called himself in his autobiography: “a fiscal conservative with a social conscience.”
The behaviour of the Republican party is baffling, unless you start to think of it as nothing more than a political front for a coalition of business and financial interests whose sole priority is to further enrich themselves. Then it all begins to make perfect sense.
That sounds kooky and conspiratorial nowadays, but I’m convinced it’s essentially the truth.
What do you like about TR, Chris?
Might I recommend The Big Con, Jonathan Chait’s new book on this topic. He is a great political writer and the book outlines the process by which the previously fiscally responsible GOP was taken over by the supply side quacks that control their economic policy today. Two thumbs up
During the time period many people would describe as the “golden era” of the United States, the top marginal tax rate was 90%. (No typo, that’s nine zero…)
Today, as our infrastructure crumbles, the depression advances, and we sink closer and closer to third world status, the tax rate on investment income, that is, unearned income, is 15%…
Mark Bacon of The Bacon Press