Top marginal income tax rates from 1913 to 2011, from Wikipedia.
This past week Congress passed a bill linking continued tax cuts to a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, which would bring minimally processed Canadian oil sands to the Gulf region to be refined and distributed. Well, if I were president, I would veto this bill. And not only because I think that the Keystone XL pipeline is ridiculous (for many reasons, which I’ll detail in a later post). For I also am against continuing the Bush-era tax cuts, and I’ll tell you why.
First of all, despite the fact that our troops recently departed Iraq, and despite the fact that I do not condone much of our military action abroad (or at home), we are engaged in military action in several countries, and this was the original reason for imposing an income tax, during the Civil War, and for subsequent increases in that tax during the world wars. (Income taxes were lowered during the Vietnam War, which was the first major war that this happened, foretelling the current situation. We seem to be unable as a country to sacrifice in order to accomplish a common goal, and this flows into many arenas today, with climate change coming to mind immediately, but more on that subject in another post.)
But even if you don’t believe in spending income taxes on war and military projection, there are so many other government programs that have been cut and starved the past few years, and could use the money. Think of all the new (or former) jobs we could (re-)create in environmental protection, alternative energy, basic research and development, space exploration, housing, transportation and even agriculture.
Tax policy in recent years (since the 1980s) has brought the top tax rate way down from its heyday in the 1940s and 50s (see the graph from Wikipedia to the right), and if we could do that without a subsequent ballooning of national debt, that might be a good thing. But the expenses of government, especially the military expenses championed by both major political parties, have risen steeply, especially since 2001. Put simply, we can’t afford continued tax cuts.
So, let the tax cuts lapse, I say. Yes, that means increased taxes, and I’m willing to pay them. I have a lot to say about how they’re spent, but even if they’re spent on war and destruction, at least I’m paying, and not my kid and his generation. It’s only fair.
Makes sense to me. You take the same principled stand that Warren Buffet has taken. Except you embrace it for the middle class, in effect refusing to allow Republicans to use you as a human shield in their class terrorism. I’m with you.
But we can’t really call them “Bush Tax Cuts” anymore, can we? The Democrats weren’t willing to simply let those budget-busting cuts expire when they had majority control of both houses of Congress and the White House.
Dems are utterly incompetent at negotiating budget policy (or just about anything). How many times have we seen Obama and his ditto Donkeys bray about principled stands and then cave to Republican demands?
Leaders of both parties look like asses to me nowadays.