Tuesday, June 01, 2004
Voodoo economics, Bush-style
Paul Krugman's Times article this morning offers a rehashing of previous arguments against Bush's tax cuts, but they bear, once again, repeating.
The isolation of the Executive Branch from the scrutiny of independent policy experts has caused a tremendous amount of misunderstanding by the public about Bush's tax plan. With the Treasury Department ceasing distribution of many sets of data, educated analysis of the tax program is undertaken at arms length. The inherent "uncertainty" of using such guesswork only helps the Administration sidestep tax policy questions. Even the most ardent tax-cut supporters have offered little more than fluff reasoning for the extensive tax cuts to the richest individuals.
They aren't even bothering to spout the "trickle-down" concept the Reaganites espoused which would offer a minimal amount of cover for filling wealthy pockets. Maybe they are just lazy, or maybe they are just stupid, but either way, once again, the "grown-up administration" has retreated to its room to do God knows what...
"In fact, the 257,000 taxpayers with incomes of more than $1 million received a bigger combined tax cut than the 85 million taxpayers who make up the bottom 60 percent of the population."
The isolation of the Executive Branch from the scrutiny of independent policy experts has caused a tremendous amount of misunderstanding by the public about Bush's tax plan. With the Treasury Department ceasing distribution of many sets of data, educated analysis of the tax program is undertaken at arms length. The inherent "uncertainty" of using such guesswork only helps the Administration sidestep tax policy questions. Even the most ardent tax-cut supporters have offered little more than fluff reasoning for the extensive tax cuts to the richest individuals.
"Does Mr. Bush understand that the end result of his policies will be to make most Americans worse off, while enriching the already affluent? Who knows? But the ideologues and political operatives behind his agenda know exactly what they're doing."
They aren't even bothering to spout the "trickle-down" concept the Reaganites espoused which would offer a minimal amount of cover for filling wealthy pockets. Maybe they are just lazy, or maybe they are just stupid, but either way, once again, the "grown-up administration" has retreated to its room to do God knows what...
