Public Nuisance
on conservative disconnects from reality:
In general, it is quite striking how disconnected many conservatives are from reality. In both John’s
comments and the vast comment section on Calpundit, you can find numerous conservatives complaining about
how liberals want to take their money. To the few of those conservatives who will read this post, let me
put this more bluntly than politely: you are a mark. Have you noticed that your side has been dominant for
most of the past 20+ years? Have you noticed that they have passed loads of tax cuts, yet your tax burden
doesn’t seem to be going down? Have you noticed – will you ever notice – that it’s a feature, not a bug?
The massive tax cuts for the very rich leave no room for anything but token benefits for the middle class,
but one Republican strategist even admitted a few years ago the Republicans wouldn’t really cut middle
class taxes meaningfully even if they somehow could. It’s in their interest to keep gouging middle class
taxpayers, because those who feel their taxes are too high are more likely to vote Republican.Bush, like Reagan, has passed massive tax cuts while increasing spending. Reagan cut progressive taxes,
especially rates for the highest brackets, then followed up with a very substantial increase in withholding
taxes, the most regressive tax. Bush is cutting estate taxes, dividends taxes, capital gains taxes, and
high bracket rates, massive cuts that will save millions and even billions for a few of the very wealthy.
In addition, he is tossing in tokens such as an increase in child allowances which will mean a few hundred
dollars a year for those middle class voters dumb enough to believe he will help them. The largest surplus
in history turned almost immediately into the largest deficit in history, which was running at about $1 bn
a day before the last set of tax cuts came through. Inevitably, at some point the bill will come due and
there will be hefty new taxes to bring the budget back towards balance. Those taxes will take away all the
benefits that middle class payers received from the Bush tax cuts, and perhaps far more. Your taxes will
rise again, the Republicans will blame ‘tax and spend liberals’ again, and you will probably believe them
again and vote for them yet again. To paraphrase Barnum, there’s a Republican born every minute.