Eat The Poor

Matt Yglesias lays out the Republican philosophy on tax cuts.  He notes, correctly, that the GOP exists to funnel money upwards to the rich, so that the economy as a whole can grow, which presumably trickles down to everyone else.  Feeding the horse to feed the birds, if you get my meaning.  (My meaning is that trickle down is horseshit.)

He also persuasively notes that Reagan and Thatcher-esque tax cutting has a direct impact on economic inequality.  Trickle down does not produce a rising tide.  It does not raise all boats.  In fact, living standards for the poor have fallen, unsurprisingly, as taxes on the rich are cut.  The current tax philosophy of the GOP actively exacerbates the concentration of wealth in the "1%."  It does not just by simply taxing them less, but by creating a privileged class of wealth - investments - that escape even more taxation.

Yglesias gives the arguments in favor of these policies as "making America friendly to investors" as if we were Bulgaria.  We are not Bulgaria (no offense to Bulgarians). 

He concludes - and I agree - that the GOP will simply pursue deficit financed tax cuts rather than real tax reform, because they can't find revenue neutral ways to cut taxes on the rich without hurting everyone else.  We will get tax cuts, not tax reform.

He also notes that one argument against this could be noting the devastating effect on the national debt.  I think there are some corners of the country where that might have some traction. But he suggests, and I agree, that the real argument needs to be one of fairness.  In other words, you need to make Bernie Sanders' argument rather than Erskine Bowles argument against these tax cuts.  Democrats need to make the debate about economic fairness.

I think we are entering a tipping point moment against the aggregation of great wealth.  I think it's part of the fuel of ethno-nationalist politics in the Global North.  All I would add to Yglesias' argument is that we almost need a global tax agreement to avoid a race to the bottom.  In order to rebalance the human scales, we will need to tax the financial industry much more than we do.  Since the financial industry is as slippery as a grease-covered eel, having a global regime in place to prevent tax evasion will be critical.

Democrats won the health care fight (I think it's over, who knows) because the GOP was proposing something monstrous.  They are doing the same thing on taxes, providing the message gets across.