Taxes and Mr. Lieberman
Larry Elder
newsandopinion.com | Ed Crane, president of the libertarian think tank Cato Institute, supports term limits. He argues that term limits, among other things, prevent career politicians from becoming entrenched establishment figures no longer responsive to their constituents. I argue that we already possess term limits -- elections -- and that, right or wrong, people deserve to vote for politicians they want.
But tell me, does Senator Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., make Crane's case or mine?
Lieberman, in Iowa sniffing out a possible presidential run in 2004, criticized President George W. Bush's economic plan. Lieberman said Bush wanted "to make his tax cut permanent, which would cost $4 trillion (emphasis added). That's not spending restraint. Tax cuts are (emphasis added) spending."
Wow! To call Lieberman's definition of "tax cut" doublespeak insults George Orwell. Let's call it Potomac psychosis.
Democrats froth when Republicans remind them of former President John F. Kennedy's position on tax cuts. The Dec. 24, 1962, issue of U.S. News and World Report quotes Kennedy at length: "If Government is to retain the confidence of the people, it must not spend a penny more than can be justified on grounds of national need, and spent with maximum efficiency. . . . The final and best means of strengthening demand among consumers and business is to reduce the burden on private income and the deterrence to private initiative which are imposed by our present tax system. . . . It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too low -- and the soundest way to raise revenues in the long run is to cut rates now.
"The experience of a number of European countries has borne this out. This country's own experience with tax reductions in 1954 has borne this out, and the reason is that only full employment can balance the budget -- and tax reduction can pave the way to full employment. The purpose of cutting taxes now is not to incur a budgetary deficit, but to achieve the more prosperous expanding economy which will bring a budgetary surplus." What a difference 40 years makes.
President Bill Clinton frequently made Lieberman-like remarks regarding taxes. In December 1994, for example, President Clinton spoke about a middle-class tax cut, "I intend to impose one as long as I can pay for it (emphasis added)." As to his intentions for the then-budget surplus, President Clinton later said, "We could give it all back to you and hope you spend it right (emphasis added). But . . . if you don't spend it right, here's what's going to happen . . . " Geez, whose money is this anyway?
A historical digression. From 1791 to 1802, the government made do with taxes on things like whiskey and tobacco. Congress abolished those taxes in 1817, and relied on tariffs providing money for the prescribed functions of the federal government.
During the Civil War, Congress did pass an income tax, eliminated the tax 10 years later, resurrected it 12 years later, only to have the U.S. Supreme Court strike it down in 1895 as unconstitutional. The 16th Amendment, in 1913, allowed for an income tax, and in 1943, Congress authorized withholding tax on wages.
Message 17932201 |
