When all else fails…

April 10, 2006

Republicans in Washington have found themselves in quite a mess. The war in Iraq, corruption, deficits, discouraging polls, criminal investigations, the works. The party can’t pass a budget, can’t agree on immigration, and can’t put together a coherent legislative agenda.

What are the [tag]Republican[/tag]s to do? What else? Cut [tag]taxes[/tag].

Burdened by an unpopular war and divisions over immigration and other issues, Republicans are turning to an old standby — taxes — to unite the party and boost its prospects in the midterm elections.

From Washington to Sacramento, strategists say the issue can help put the GOP back on offense while energizing Republican loyalists, whose turnout is crucial to the party’s November success.

“Tax issues are a fundamental divide between Republicans and Democrats,” said Carl Forti, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. The GOP effort to make President Bush’s tax cuts permanent “is going to be a big issue in House races” nationwide, Forti said.

Yes, the party of “new ideas” has nothing left but the one issue that has defined the party for 100 years. Sure, they’ve already [tag]cut[/tag] taxes, repeatedly, since Bush took office, but no matter. If taxes still exist, as far as the GOP is concerned, there’s still room to cut.

Could this possibly work as a political strategy? My hunch is that it will be seen as a desperation move, appealing to a concern that voters do not share. I haven’t seen any recent polling on this, but where do taxes fall on the list of issues voters care most about? Is it even in the top 10? In fact, it seems more likely voters have the opposite concern — massive deficits caused by tax cuts the country can’t afford.

For that matter, it’s also worth noting that just two weeks ago, Time magazine asked Americans which party they thought would do a better job managing the country’s tax policies. It wasn’t particularly close — [tag]Democrat[/tag]s 45%, Republicans 38%.

And yet, taxes are the Republicans’ ace-in-the-hole issue? We’ll see.

Welllll…

I’m sure if they promise to cut the right people’s taxes, that will result in some very timely campaign cash, which will be useful in the ongoing bamboozlement campaigns.

I also think Joe American IS dumb enough to think they’re going to give him some free money.

He’s just that stupid, and you can’t fix that with facts.

  • I thought in 2005 that the Republican unity would begin to fall apart because with the massive deficit, the Republicans could no longer cut taxes and, therefore, no longer had an issue that they all agreed upon. I guess I was overly optomistic that reality would actually curb the Republicans’ plans…

  • Both sides of an argument here:

    In 2005, the Grover Norquist brigade was defeated in both Colorado and Washington. Washington voted to reinstate the gas tax, and Colorado voted to overturn TABOR.

    In other words, voters don’t always vote for tax cuts. If we can make the budgetary consequences salient to their lives, we can win on this issue.

    The flip side of this argument is that those were very specific taxes, and their consequences were bad for the business community, too. Washington’s gas tax was needed to fix rapidly delapidating roads. TABOR was restricting government services to an absurd degree. Perhaps it’s business that sank them.

    In other words, unless we can get business on our side here (and if it’s income tax, that’s very hard to imagine), we will lose the tax question.

    I don’t know which, but I think Racerx is wrong; you can’t simply write off voters’ ability to think critically about taxes.

  • There’s an easy way to short-circuit this little scam as well. Ask people how they feel about their rising property taxes, and then point out to them that all the Feds are doing is shifting the cost burden of services onto your state or local government. And ask what they think of their fishing and hunting license fees going up. Because they’re going up for the same reason.

    And, even after shifting costs onto the states, the Feds are still spending like drunken old prostitutes with a stolen credit card. Ask your NASCAR dad/Security mom how s/he feels owing money to the Chinese.

  • I’m with jhupp. When Republicans talk about taxes, Democrats should have three responses:

    1) Most Americans want more government services, not less. Every dollar not collected for tax revenue is a dollar that won’t be spent on public schools, homeland security, infrastructure repair/improvements, and other *investments* in our nation.

    2) Whenever Republicans cut taxes, middle-class voters get screwed. See last week’s NY Times analysis of where the Bush tax cut dollars went by the incomparable Daniel Cay Johnston (blogged about, I believe, on this site).

    3) In a time of huge and growing deficits, further reducing government revenue is tantamount to holding up our kids and grandkids at gunpoint. Already, Bush/DeLay/Norquist has added tens of thousands of dollars to each of their personal “tab”; do we want to make this worse?

    At the same time, Democrats should propose a few tax cuts of their own–ideally, IMO, through tax-deductible personal development accounts for education and home ownership. Our positive proposals should speak to middle-class/swing-voter anxieties and insecurities, even as our critiques of the other side should speak to the justified rage of the base.

  • How about cutting taxes on real people, instead
    of the rich? Does anyone remember when the
    marginal tax rate was 91%, or even 70%, when
    Reagan took office? Now it’s a joke. If you have
    a few billion lying around, and you don’t work,
    you pay no taxes at all, nothing, except on the
    few million you cash in – realized gains – to live
    on, and then only at the 15% rate, while the working
    stiff gets hammered at 27% plus FICA payroll
    taxes.

    But do Americans understand this? No. And
    apparently, they never will. No one with a sound
    mind and knowledge of what’s really going on
    would ever vote for these Republicans, and yet
    they do, in hordes, so much so that we just
    can’t stop ourselves from self-destructing.

    I can understand puritanical America becoming
    so infuriated with Bill Clinton’s antics that it put
    into the White House the worst fool this nation
    has ever encountered, but to do it a second
    time??? For God sakes, somebody up there
    please come down and save us from ourselves.

    No one else can, least of all the Democrats.

  • Remember Sen. Pat Roberts cowardly statement: “If you’re dead you don’t need any civil rights.”?

    We Democrats need to start reminding the country, “When the economy collapses in ruins from lack of income and crushing deficits, you don’t need tax cuts!”

  • Democratic ad:
    “Joe Smith, Iraq veteran, who was wounded in Fallujah, will have to pay more out-of-pocket costs for treatment of the injuries he received defending our freedom, just so Paris Hilton gets a tax break. And the Republicans claim to be ‘supporting the troops'”.

    Overly simplistic, but gets the message across.

  • Also, these tax cuts are bullshit. With no change in circumstances, I have received $200 LESS in federal refunds each year: 2003=$1600+; 2004=$1403; 2005=$1200.

    Now THAT’S tax relief, Republican Guard style!

  • I don’t think the idea is to convince Independents and Democrats to vote for Republicans, it’s to “gin up the base”, i.e., get the base to donate and vote. The greatest fear of Republicans is that their loyal voters will be disgusted by all the squalor and simply stay home – which is also the greatest hope for Dems to win a majority in the gerrymandered House.

    Look for the tried (originally typed “tired”, which works, too) and true, including some gay bashing like the amendments on gay marriage the last go-round.

  • The Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld Doctrine posits that the world’s only super-power can readily throw its weight around on “a shoestring of a revenue stream”—when we are willing to have future generations owned (enslaved) by the Chinese. This is also know as “borrow-and-spend” Republicanism.

    Does anybody remember that George H. W. Bush was once the American ambassador to the PRC (People’s Republic of China)?

  • The diversions are plenty – Does anyone outside of Bush’s hardcore supporters actually take the threat of nuking Iran seriously. Immigration? Sensenbrenner and others supporting criminalizing illegal immigrants have no substantial latino constituancy to lose. This leaves the door open to the “Good Cop” Repugs who will save the day by getting a “kinder, gentler” bill passed that still caters to the corporate anti-union interests.

  • I have read recently that tax revenue have INCREASED since the tax cuts took effect.

  • “My Republican opponent would like to cut more taxes. I’d rather buy some body armor for the troops in Iraq. My Republican opponent would like to cut more taxes. I’d like to buy prosthetic limbs for the men and women who’ve left arms and legs in the sand over there.” I hereby waive all copyright to any Democratic candidate except Lieberman who wants this in their speech.

    It’s shouldn’t be hard to expand a theme linking their “cut taxes” mantra with their bad governance. There are plenty of things people want, and frankly, it isn’t spin to say we can’t do them if we cut taxes.

    “My Republican opponent would like to cut more taxes. I’d like to make sure we can protect our citizens from hurricanes and other natural disasters.”

    “protect our ports”, etc. etc.

  • “I have read recently that tax revenue have INCREASED since the tax cuts took effect.”

    I have read about baby Jesus dolls crying, too. Kindly post a source, please.

  • I’m with 2Manchu and biggerbox on this one. The Republikanners are all about security and supporting the troops. They’ve cut everywhere else to pay for previous tax cuts; the only thing left to cut is from the troops. Let’s show the world what happens when VA benefits that were promised no longer exist. Let’s show the world what happens when promised body armor never shows up—and then these bums make it illegal for families and friends to send privately-purchased dragonskin to their loved ones in harm’s way. Let’s show the world all the families back home who’ve not a decent place to live, or a meaningful way to keep the utilities turned on, or three square meals a day for the kids of folks who are bleeding for that jerk on the Oval Office.

    Medical benefits: Cut and/or discontinued.
    Housing allowances: Cut and/or discontinued.
    Survival benefits: Cut and/or discontinued.
    Proper equipment and quartermastering: Non-existent.
    Contractual commitment: Non-existent.

    Wouldn’t it be a hoot, if the troops just up and decided to pull a Delta Pilots routine on Rumsfeld and company? “Give us what you promised when we signed up—or our contractual commitment to you is hereby terminated.” I know guys right now who aren’t re-upping; I also know high school teachers and counselors who are telling their students about all of the Pentagon’s broken promises. Same thing on all the college campuses. Trust me—things are not all wine and roses at your friendly neighborhood recruiting station.

    The only reason anyone in the position of this current administration and Congress would promote another round of tax breaks is so they can try to buy their jobs for another election cycle. And sooner or later, the outside groups who repeatedly loan money to this government are going to slam the door shut, and demand payment. They may go as far as to demand payment is something more durable than our wonderful comic-book currency. Does the U.S. Government have 9 trillion dollars’ worth of Euros in their vaults? Methinks not….

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