Legal Commentary

"Progressive" Blindspot: Tax Policy

By Big Tent Democrat

An issue I have thundered about for some time, with particular intensity during The Deal. The most progressive legislation of the last 20 years was the 1993 tax bill in which Bill Clinton and a Democratic Congress, with precisely ZERO support from Republicans, raised taxes on the rich and cut them for the working poor. To this day, this progressive achievement remains undervalued. Here is Scott Lemeiux:

NAFTA, welfare reform, the FMLA, the 1993 budget, the omnibus crime bill, DOMA, the line item veto, the death penalty/habeas corupus atrocity, the Brady Bill[. . . T]hose who are inclined to be nostalgic about Clinton when evaluating Obama should look carefully at that list.

(Emphasis supplied.) I do look at that list and think that it reveals a very serious shortcoming in the first two years of the Obama Presidency - his refusal to let the Bush tax cuts expire. Clinton raised taxes on the rich. Obama extended tax cuts for the rich. The heart of the deficit discussions going on today are laid at the feet of The Deal. Too many Beltway Blogger types want you to ignore that fact. But they are not hesitant to tell you what a bad guy Wisconsin governor Walker is because he, you guessed it, cut taxes. Many echo this reasoning from The Deal supporter The New York Times' editorial page:

[T]he governor is refusing to accept his own share of responsibility for the state’s projected $137 million shortfall. Just last month, he and the Legislature gave away $117 million in tax breaks, mostly for businesses that expand and for private health savings accounts. That was a choice lawmakers made, and had it not been for those decisions and a few others, according to the state’s Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the state would have had a surplus.

In December, the federal government, at the urging of President Obama, extended trillions of dollars in tax cuts. The obsession with "cutting spending" as the sole way to "fix the deficit" is directly attributable to President Obama's decision to extend the Bush tax cuts.

Many progressives defended President Obama on The Deal. The fact is The Deal was indefensible.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on February 18, 2011 (boomark / email).