God and Country
by PHIL JONES
Nothing exposes the soul of our political system quite like the debate over the Bush tax cuts, which are due to expire at the end of this year.
Remember a few short months ago, when Republicans were howling with moral indignation at the massive federal deficit? They pointed out, quite correctly, that the debt would have to be paid by “our children and grandchildren.” Remember that? Well, evidently, they themselves don’t remember.
The Bush tax cuts conservatively account for $300 million of our current deficit (which is hovering between $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion dollars). And the red ink generated by these tax cuts, which were unnecessary and budget-busting to begin with, is projected to increase massively in the years to come. Simply ending the Bush tax cuts would reduce the deficit by 15% in one swift stroke – an enormous saving, with no cut in government services. So the Republicans are all for letting the Bush tax cuts expire, for the sake of our kiddos and their kiddos, right?
Of course not. Taxes must never be raised, according to Republican orthodoxy. Tax increases are always bad for the economy, they insist, in spite of all evidence to the contrary. But the Bush tax cuts are even more sacred to Republicans, because they disproportionately benefit the richest few – which is, after all, the core constituency of the Republican Party. (Sorry, Christian conservatives, but facts are facts.) It was precisely because of this disproportionate benefit to the rich that Sen. John McCain voted against the Bush tax cuts when they were proposed, back in 2000, before he sold his soul.
So the Republicans don’t mind saddling our children and grandchildren with massive debts, as long as the core Republicans themselves are the beneficiaries of the government’s largesse. Let the brats eat cake. They like it better than bread anyway.
But the Democrats are much better, right? Actually, no. Not at all. In the first place, the Democrats have never paused to worry about who will pay the bill for the deficits. The Democrats practically invented deficit spending under FDR, as a response to the Great Depression. When I was in college (a long time ago), my economics class carefully taught me that the national debt never actually has to be paid back. We need only pay the interest on it. This orthodoxy still prevails among most Democrats.
When the Bush tax cuts were originally proposed and debated, the Democrats opposed them. But now, they want to keep some of them, especially those that benefit the middle class. So they are playing the same game as the Republicans – using our tax money to reward their political base, at the expense of future generations. (At least, they hope the middle class will be on their side at the polls.)
So who is looking out for our children and our children’s children? Neither party. They are perfectly content to pass the problems on to the rug rats. If either side had even one pinky’s worth of moral sensibility or political courage, they would let the Bush tax cuts expire. All that requires Congress to do is nothing at all.
Nothing is normally what they do best. Watch them blow even this.
