In Washington, today is always the day to cut taxes, and tomorrow is
always the day to have a meeting about reducing the deficit.
Democratic Rep. Harold Ford has an op-ed in the NYT that calls on Democrats to focus on tax cuts and deficit reduction to grow the economy. The Atlantic Wire samples some liberal commentators who rightly skewer the piece for blithely moving from “More deficit-growing tax cuts!” to “Less deficit-growing!” in four paragraphs, without even pretending to acknowledge the discrepancy. Here are the relevant paragraphs:
First, cut taxes for businesses — big and small — and find
innovative ways to get Americans back to work. We can start by giving
any companies that are less than five years old an exemption from
payroll taxes for six months; extending the current capital gains and
dividend tax rates through 2012; giving permanent tax credits for
businesses that invest in research and development; and reducing the
top corporate tax rate to 25 percent from 35 percent…Second, we should pass a
more focused health reform bill that restructures current health care
costs before spending more, prohibits insurance companies from denying
coverage for pre-existing conditions, enacts responsible reform on
malpractice suits and extends health coverage to all children…Third, we should reform our immigration policy to ensure
that those who contribute to our economy, especially foreign math and
science graduates of American universities, have a clear path to
citizenship.Finally, we need to address budget deficits now
rather than waiting for some ideal future economic situation. It’s a
good sign that the Obama administration is following the advice of
Senators Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Evan Bayh of Indiana and other
Democratic fiscal pragmatists who embrace the idea of a bipartisan
commission to recommend spending cuts to rein in deficit growth. But we
must be sure that the administration and Congress heed the commission’s
advice.
My problem with these paragraphs is not that I think they’re terribly
misguided on the merits. I agree that targeted tax cuts could boost
employment, which would boost production. I agree that overlooking
immigration reform this year would be a terrible mistake, for precisely
the reason Ford provides — clearing the citizenship path for foreign
graduates of American universities. I do agree that we should pass
health care reform, although I don’t think Ford’s stripped-down version is practical.
But here’s my problem: Ford has ideas for tax cuts, health care and
immigration. But for deficit reduction, his idea is “Hey, let’s hear from somebody else!” This sort of vicarious indignation about the deficit is
widespread — look at Conrad, and Bayh and Gregg. The entire deficit
reduction debate is like a group of high school kids who want to create
a swanky sounding student group (International Affairs Inter-Student Ideas Engagement
Council!) in their senior year so they can list it on their college
resumes. We have a deficit crisis because the things causing the deficit like tax levels and entitlement spending are politically intractable. A commission won’t solve that problem. It will only rediscover it.
