A Question for Obama on that Tax Cut
By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Debates, TaxesWriting for the Wall Street Journal, William McGurn reminds us what happened the last time a Democrat presidential candidate promised to cut middle-class taxes. That’s right, Bill Clinton forgot his pledge even before taking office and went on to raise taxes on almost everyone. Is there any reason to expect a repeat from a Barack Obama administration?
Well, Obama has been a lot more forceful in the promotion of a middle-class tax cut than Clinton ever was. But Obama won’t be writing the bills, will he? He’ll have a Democratic Congress writing the final legislation. Will they comply with his plan?
I don’t know. But here’s the question I would really like to hear asked of Obama tonight:
If Congress sends you a bill that raises taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year, will you veto that bill, even if the rest of the legislation is acceptable?
The directness of Obama’s answer will tell us how serious he is about cutting most of our taxes. Is it a true conviction or just political window dressing?
This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Barack, Debates, Taxes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
October 7th, 2008 at 7:34 am
I have never taken this pledge seriously as something of any real importance. I view it only as symbolic of Obama’s accent upon policies that look to the well-being of the middle and lower economic classes.
But I’m not innumerate. I can actually do math. I understand it. In fact I edit it for a living. So I know that there are simply far too many middle class folks in comparison to those in the upper income echelons for Obama or anyone else to enact a “middle class” tax cut that would make any substantive difference.
Like it or not, personal incomes stack in a pyramid. There are lots and lots and lots of folks working hourly wage jobs making $8, $11, $15, $22 per hour. All those folks make about $40k or less annually. Then there are far fewer folks making 60, even fewer making 80, fewer making 100, and so on and so on.
I hope the next President is smarter than to think that the 21st century challenges for America can be met or substantively impacted by further changes in tax policy. Decades ago, tax rates on wealthy earners were too high, and reducing then really did lead to beneficial economic effects. The low-hanging fruit has mostly been picked now.
Maybe some of the more liberal folks out there really are eager to restore the pre-Kennedy era top bracket rate of 70%. If that happens, there wil be too surprises. One, it won’t generate enough money for a very substantial concurrent cut for “middle class” Americans. Not unless you exclude a bunch of folks who think they are middle class even though their income is 10, 20, or 30k above the median. And two, it won’t have a very salutory effect on the economy.
The biggest challenge for the federal, state, and local governments in the 21st century is going to be to figure out how to continue to finance programs like unemployment, welfare, social security, medicare, and medicaid (and for state and local govts, education and healthcare) in a way that is sustainable. Sustainable means that the share of government revenues consumed by these programs is relatively stable, not growing quickly.
The government does not have extra money lying around to give back to the middle class. If it does so anyway, there are 2 problems:
•first, whatever it is will be a drop in the bucket, like the checks we all got and quickly spent this past summer
•2nd and more important, the money for these “returns” will come from increased borrowing. Next time you are offered a tax cut, translate it from “Bob do you want a tax cut?” to “Bob, would you us to borrow some money from your not-yet-born grandchild and give it to you now?”
October 7th, 2008 at 7:43 am
And speaking of economic issues, anyone know why NBC pulled this sketch from its web sites?
http://patdollard.com/2008/10/it-is-here-the-banned-snl-skit-cannot-hide-from-louie/
Either someone (Soros or the Sandlers) threatened to sue or NBC proactively decided to remove for…other reasons?
October 7th, 2008 at 7:44 am
After all, absolutely nothing else matters to our country other than cutting taxes again and again and again. That’s the height of fiscal responsibility.
October 7th, 2008 at 8:27 am
Yes it is Jim S. It’s taking the credit card from the stupid teenagers that can’t seem to stop spending.
October 7th, 2008 at 10:30 am
SaneInSF,
You really haven’t been paying much attention lately, have you?
October 7th, 2008 at 10:53 am
[...] A Question for Obama on that Tax Cut October 7, 2008 at 12:53 pm [...]
October 7th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Sane:
Over the past half-century it’s crystal clear that both the democrats and the republicans have DEMONSTRATED that they feel no compulsion to let their spending be controlled by the level of government revenue. Reduced government refenue? NO problem. We’ll just borrow more money, issue more bonds.
IMO, the only way to actually change this is to do a better and more vigilant job of electing congresscritters willing to constrain spending based on revenue projections. This issue is obviously beyond the scope of who is President.
October 7th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
A Question For Obama On That Tax Cut…
Alan Stewart Carl, a moderate blogger and undecided voter, writes: “Writing for the Wall Street Journal, William McGurn reminds us what happened the last time a Democrat presidential candidate promised to cut middle-class taxes. That?s right, Bill Cl…