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celticlord2112 -> RE: Obama: Recession could delay rescinding of tax cuts (9/8/2008 5:37:19 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: meatcleaver
quote:
ORIGINAL: celticlord2112
Don't get me wrong--I think it's great that Obama is starting to learn that raising taxes is a bad thing. I just wonder how deep the lesson goes, and will he shift gears again closer to November.
There are both valid reasons to raise and lower tax cuts at various times, this is not a one way street. America for these last years has been living off vasts amounts of borrowed money, that is a bad thing. As Steiglitz pointed out, if Bush wanted to fight a war, he should have raised taxes to pay for it and not given tax cuts and then borrowed to pay for the war. The American economy is now in a bad position where it can't raise taxes to pay for its adventures but nor is it in a good position to cut them.
Even accepting that sometimes tax increases are good (keep in mind my ideal size of government hovers close to or at the zero level), the U.S. economy has not magically transformed from glowing success to abysmal failure in the past few days. The problems and weaknesses in the economy have been front page news since early spring.
If it is a bad idea to raise taxes now because of the economic conditions, it was a bad idea then.
Obama is not saying he was wrong before and has changed his mind, nor do I even see him making the argument that conditions have deteriorated sufficiently to warrant a shift in posture. He just switched from "raise taxes on the wealthy, cut taxes on the poor, and the economy will heal" to "don't raise taxes until the economy heals."
I know some think all the hand-wringing and looking in the rearview mirror is cute and cuddly and warm and fuzzy, but I want someone in the Oval Office who has his eye on the road. Obama and his "this is my stance today, not yesterday, and likely not tomorrow" just ain't measuring up.
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