Calling for Tax Cuts Disingenuous

I just reviewed the president's candidates positions in a helpful summary by the New York Times here.

I find the Republicans constant call for tax cuts disingenuous. If taxes are always too high no matter what their current level is, then the optimal level of taxes would logically be zero. Yet no Republican has come forward proposing to shut down the government entirely yet.

It's easy to be for tax cuts, because no one likes paying taxes. But it's intellectually and morally dishonest unless you can explain what level of taxes you would find justified or supportable. I find it morally dishonest because I believe it feeds into today's mentality of something for nothing - that I ought to be able to benefit from government services without having to pay for them. In civil society, where so many of our investments require common payment and provide common benefit, this self-centered thinking is corrosive. It feeds into cheating the system and promotes the attitude that it's OK to take a free ride at the expense of the system wherever possible.

I understand that no one wants to suggest specific programs to cut while running for office, but candidates ought to at least explain in principle what types of programs and services government ought to provide and therefore should be funded by taxes, and what types of programs and services should not be.

Proposing to cut taxes is particularly irresponsible now, at a time when we have record deficits, two concurrent and very expensive wars, and lingering social security and medicare budget crises. To my way of thinking, cutting taxes now is just shifting the burden of today's costs onto the next generation. That's what deficit spending is generally, but particularly in our current setting.

Comments

Anonymous said…
You mentioned the two expensive wars: I want to emphasize that these wars are far far more expensive than they needed to be because anything privatized is more expensive, and there is an extraordinary amount of waste happening, if I am to believe what I've been told. While it is true that IN THEORY, privatizing isn't necessarily more expensive than G.I., in fact, it always seems to work out that way. When theory and reality differ, it is usually theory that is incorrect.
January 14, 2008
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