Deficit Politics Returns
" Mr. Bush has access to the same information everyone
else does, but instead of making plans for a graceful
retreat he seems determined to box himself into a
hard-right scenario of continuing to cut taxes, mainly for
the WEALTHY, at a time when more and more poor and
middle-class Americans are finding themselves out of
work."
New York Times
Editorial
January 8, 2002
New York Times
Editorial
It did not take long after the
New Year for President Bush
and the Democrats to resume
their squabbling over taxes and
the federal budget. Unfortunately, their arguments have
been covered with so much political padding that the
country can hardly be expected to follow them.
The tax cuts of 2001 have left the federal government ill
equipped to deal with the demands of fighting both
terrorism and a domestic recession. Congress scheduled
most of the cuts to take place a few years from now.
Projections by both the Democratic and Republican
Congressional budget staffs suggest that unless at least
some of them are derailed, the nation will plunge more
deeply into debt or be forced to cut critical programs.
Mr. Bush has access to the same information everyone
else does, but instead of making plans for a graceful
retreat he seems determined to box himself into a
hard-right scenario of continuing to cut taxes, mainly for
the wealthy, at a time when more and more poor and
middle-class Americans are finding themselves out of
work.
Mr. Bush's behavior has been very much governed by his
desire as chief executive to avoid the mistakes that cost
his father a second term. The first President Bush, of
course, vowed to oppose new taxes in his famous "read my
lips" speech. Later, in a genuine act of bipartisanship, he
went along with a compromise with Democrats to lower
the deficit with a package of spending cuts and tax
increases. The younger Mr. Bush has always drawn the
wrong lesson from this story. He has told innumerable
people that he will not make his father's mistake of
provoking the wrath of the right wing. But the elder
President Bush's mistake was not in agreeing to tax
increases that helped set the stage for the big recovery of
the 1990's - it was making the reckless no-new-taxes
promise in the first place. The public did not punish him
for raising taxes but for breaking his word.
On the Democrats' side, the Senate majority leader, Tom
Daschle, is on the attack himself, attempting to convince
the country that last year's tax cuts were a prime cause of
the current recession and budget deficit. Attentive
listeners might presume that Mr. Daschle would want to
see those destructive cuts repealed, but he has so far
remained coyly silent. He is said by aides to be
undertaking a slow path to an eventual confrontation with
the currently popular president. That may make sense
politically. But Mr. Daschle needs to start preparing the
public for that moment by speaking out about the tough
choices posed by the budget.
Neither the president nor Congress has any easy
solutions to these problems. Both sides only face some
difficult choices. It would be best if they started talking
about them candidly.
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