Nobody likes to pay taxes. Voters like better schools and “getting tough on crime.” These cost money, but we oppose tax increases to pay for them. Most of us backed the “war on terrorism” with ratcheted-up expenses for Iraq, Afghanistan, and homeland security – but we preferred to pay for them by adding to the budget deficit rather than pay-as-we-go. (Sen. Jim Bunning objected to extending programs for laid-off workers, but did he object when the Bush Administration failed to fund the two wars and the Medicare drug benefit?)
Ben Franklin reminded us that “In this world, nothing is certain but death and taxes.”Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson noted that “Taxes are the price we pay for civilization.” And John Adams said “Every farthing paid in taxes is a farthing’s worth of wealth and good policy.” (Tea Party champions must have been asleep in school when history, government, and economics were being taught.)
Interest groups went to protect their funds and foist costs for programs on someone else. The biggest beneficiaries of the Bush tax cuts were the 400 top taxpayers; many middle-class Americans paid a larger share of their incomes than these top 400. The richest one percent (2.7 million people) had as much after-tax revenue as the bottom 100 million Americans.
I’ve often remarked that “we have the best government that money can buy.” GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell led a filibuster this year of a deficit-reduction commission that he himself had demanded. A Georgia Senator said he was all for slowing federal spending – but not by substantially cutting federal farm programs. A Missouri representative complained about deficit spending –while saying he would resist cuts in Pentagon projects in his state! Louisiana senators opposed a plan to reduce tax breaks for oil and gas while an Alabama senator, a “fiscal conservative,” vowed to resist reductions in space program spending which benefited his state. (He placed a hold on presidential nominations until his state got a tanker contract and a counterterrorism center. He wasn’t alone in placing parochial interests first. A Missouri senator put a hold on a presidential appointment until the Government approved a building project in Kansas City.)
The Obama Administration has also been short-sighted: retaining the Bush tax cuts for almost everybody and exempting Defense from the spending freeze.
John Kennedy wrote about “Profiles in Courage.” I’d like to see more of that.
By Prof. Martin Gruberg
Oshkosh
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