TW: Have commented numerous times on the stalemate into which our fiscal policy has devolved. Republicans oppose any tax increases (including reversal of Bush's cuts for the wealthy) and in fact seek additional cuts. Yet the Republicans are unwilling to advocate spending cuts of any materiality since to do so would mean cutting either defense, social security or medicare (all other expenses are relatively immaterial). The libertarian writer below suggests the Republicans get away from the tax cut mantra and shift gears to a tax and spending reform agenda. A wise prescription, although one that I hope Obama co-ops (will get into that on new post).
From Economist:
"...the perceptive libertarian writer Jonathan Rauch...argues that to "reclaim President Reagan's legacy in the Obama era, conservatism may need to abandon the anti-tax dogma that it adheres to in Reagan's name."
Mr Rauch's argument is simple: for all of the blows exchanged between liberals and conservatives since Ronald Reagan's election, both parties have accepted the shape of the modern welfare state and battled over whether to run a government that spends between 21 percent and 24 percent of Gross Domestic Product. Conservative rhetoric is stuck in fantasy, opposed to any tax increase at any time, while lacking the conviction to propose privatizing Social Security and Medicare.
By taming inflation, restructuring the tax code, and thinning regulatory undergrowth, Reagan made the welfare state sustainable, something liberals had proved unable to do. He wooed middle-class voters away from liberalism by stabilizing the modern entitlement state, not shrinking it.
If the 21 percent era is over, then the challenge for conservatives today is to give up on 18 percent government, which the public doesn't want and which conservatives can't deliver.
The rub is that leading conservatives claim to be looking at government reform instead of tax cuts. Eric Cantor, the Republican whip in the House, has said he's studied Grand New Party, a book by two twentysomething conservative journalists who argue that Republicans will win the middle and working class votes through smarter social and tax policy, not tax and spending cuts. It's a conservative think tank and activist culture, built up over decades, that is keeping Republicans from going any further down that path."
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2009/02/libertarians_for_tax_hikes.cfm
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