What Bush is doing:For the last couple of years we've been saying to our friends that Bush's long-term goal can be summarized in one sentence:
Defund the federal government.
We are pleased to see that this perception is finally catching on. Here, for instance, is a
Los Angeles Times front page story,
Bush Budget Has a Long Reach. Excerpts:
- ... the full dimensions of President Bush's new tax and spending plan are finally coming into view, and they are even more sweeping than originally thought.
- ... Bush has produced a proposal that, if enacted, would result in a governmental about-face as far-reaching as those of Ronald Reagan or Lyndon B. Johnson.
- [Bush's] plan to revamp Medicaid and other programs Washington runs jointly with the states would be, in the words of a former Nixon administration budget official, "one of the biggest pullbacks in federal responsibility we've ever seen."
- The burgeoning deficit is driven by the president's proposals and the mounting costs of retiring baby boomers. Administration estimates show the combination would drive the deficit back above 2% of GDP by 2020, above 5% of GDP by 2030, to nearly 9% by 2040 and so on.
- "We're going to have to shrink the size of government," said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, a conservative advocacy group with close ties to the White House. "Our goal is to cut it in half."
 | Which explains why Bush is so insistent on cutting taxes for those with large incomes even though modest and broader cuts would be better for the economy right now.
Why cut aggressively at the top?
Because, to quote John Dillinger, "That's where the money is."
Limbaugh, the Wall Street Journal, and various Fox News pundits never tire of pointing out that the top 1% (or 10%) are shouldering the burden for much of what the government does. Cut back taxes on those folks (or go flat-rate, or consumption tax), and you've pretty much lost the ability to tap into the wealth that the capitalist system generates. |
posted by Quiddity at 3/09/2003 07:35:00 AM 
