I am just curious if anyone can explain to me when it became an article of faith among the left that raising taxes in the midst of an extraordinarily sluggish recovery in a still fragile economy is the quintessential progressive move?
Because I've got to say as someone who has been a member of the economic left for decades, who was a card carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America in 1985, when being a part of the left was about as unfashionable as it could be, who sided with trade unions over corporate America at the height of "morning in America" and never looked back, I just never got the memo that suggested that this is the case. (I still remember bolting out of my office on a Friday afternoon to drive to NYC so I could be there for this.)
As I recall, we on the left actually don't think that the deficit is the most important thing. We think that spurring economic growth should take precedence over a fetish for balancing budgets during difficult times.
Yeah, I know -- this is hardly the most efficient form of stimulus. I will stipulate to that. But if someone can sketch out for me a path to getting more stimulus through direct government expenditures, please do so. The votes don't exist now and they surely will not exist in another few weeks.
Honestly, I don't think the critics on the left really care about the deficit in this instance either. Nor do I think that they have made some sort of policy analysis that leads them to believe that an across the board tax hike will help the economy.
Plain and simple, I think critics on the left mostly wanted to win, mostly wanted to jam the (deservedly) hated Bush tax cuts down the throats of the Republicans, wanted to laugh as they saw the tax breaks for the rich disappear. Okay, I understand that even. But then what? How would an across the board tax increase, with no extended unemployment benefits, and no payroll tax holiday (the most progressive of tax cuts), help the people we purport to care about. And how will it benefit the left politically? I am challenging any one of you to describe those benefits to me in policy terms rather than slogans. Because I just don't see it.
