Those Pesky Bush Tax Cuts
By I know it will come as little surprise to LGM readers, and for those who have yet to see this, apparently the Bush tax cuts have a greater absolute responsibility for the current deficit / debt ceiling manufactured debate than either the entire aggregate policy changes implemented by the Obama administration or the Iraq+Afghanistan wars:
The point is that governments can respond to but not control external shocks. That’s why we call them “shocks.” Governments can control their policies. And the policy that did the most to magnify future deficits is the Bush-era tax cuts. You could argue that the stimulative effect of those cuts is worth it (“deficits don’t matter” etc). But you cannot logically argue that we absolutely must reduce deficits, but that we absolutely must also preserve every penny of those tax cuts. Which I believe precisely describes the House Republican position.
I’m shocked.
And yes, perhaps Obama just might have been a bit more forceful on not allowing their expiry, so to some extent he deserves a modicum of the blame for their continuing relevance. That said, if the tax cuts didn’t already exist, it’s highly unlikely that he would have pursued that particular policy goal on his own.
h/t to a cast of thousands. This graphic and the accompanying Fallows observations have been making the rounds on facebook over the last 24 hours.
