The Reagan administration's success in bringing the top marginal tax rate down from 70% to a low of 28% (later raised to 39.6%) was the catalyst that set off the technologically-driven expansion of the last twenty years. Along the way, a side effect was the temporary puffing of the reputations of mediocraties and nonentities like the used-car-salesman-president Bill Clinton, and the glorified clerk, Allan Greenspan. Clinton's reputation self-destructed over his second term, and now Greenspan is exposed, once again today, by the latest in his multiple failures to deal with economic reality.
It so obvious it screams, even at pinheaded liberals like Daschel and Gephardt: It is time, once again and immediately, to bring down the top tax rate. The overwhelming weight of the economic, historical, and moral arguments cannot be avoided by even the most obtuse political careerists. I look for the Bush administration to succeed in not just getting their original tax bill passed, but a much more generous and retroactive one, in the near term.
Unfortunately, we will be in the middle of the Greenspan/Clinton recession, and the Clinton energy debacle, before we see the final passage... |
