Former Bush Administration economist and Harvard Professor Greg Mankiw put a few thoughts down on the impact of the Bush tax cuts expiring. In it, he uses an interesting test case--himself.
I am a big fan of Mankiw, but I have a quibble with his approach.
He lays out his whole case as a comparison between what his situation would be after 30 years of NO taxes whatsoever, and what his situation would be with the Bush cuts lapsing. Only at the end of his example does he come back to the fact that this isn't a choice between no taxes and something else. It is a choice between the present tax rate and a marginally higher one. Don't get me wrong--I don't want the higher taxes either--I just don't like the way he makes his point here.
I kind of agree with you quibbling, but I also think he ignores WHY there is a need for higher taxes, and whether there are other options available. No matter how much we hate that the gov't has but us behind the 8-ball with respect to debt and deficit spending, we have to look at reasonable ways to get out of the mess that we as a society are in. Frankly, we need to both reign in gov't spending (especially on transfer payments) and increase income from taxes. It's like trying to lose weight, you can get marginal results if you watch what you eat, or exercise -- but when you do both you get serious results.
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Anonymous, I agree that we need to tackle the enormous debt that we have incurred. But before this government demands one more penny from us, we should demand that they eliminate the programs that they just passed against our will that exacerbate the situation.
ReplyDeleteIf these arrogant, we-know-better- than-you Pelosi acolytes get their way, they'll get the taxes first and we'll see the subsequent spending reductions sometime around...uhm...never.
Until we do a forced weaning, the sucklings in Congress will continue to draw vacuum until the public teat is forever dry.
If you've ever witnessed weaning time on a cattle ranch, with the calves moaning for their 'momma' cows, it's a mournful sound that goes on night and day for several days until they finally figure out they need to get busy taking care of themselves. I'm looking forward to hearing that mournful sound here in Washington the morning of 3 November...
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ReplyDeleteMudge, while I agree with you in concept, we can never get past that while we have our imperfect representative style of government. To get what you want, we would have to put nearly everything in front of the voters for referendum. It will never work, sorry...
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