Comments on: Reshaping the Debate on Raising Taxes

By: DLS

DLS — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 23:33:09 +0000

It’s not Republicans and non-liberals who dishonestly appeal to emotion by saying “fairness” when advocating progressive taxation.

Meanwhile, the obvious solution for liberals (and to those wanting simplification, always a good thing) to the “hated ‘death tax’” problem is to repeal the estate tax but include inheritances as income subject to income tax as would be gifts and such.

By: domajot

domajot — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 23:19:01 +0000

REgarding tases, as on other issues, the Democrats have to rescue the English language form the Right’s spin machine.
I totally agree with the importance of how a question is phrased. Even more important is the art of labeling. When the estate tax was renamed the :death tax’ it changed perception enormously while bypasing the need to justify a change in policy with a coherent rationale.

By: DLS

DLS — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 21:02:16 +0000

Revenue neutrality is a sanity check and a gauge for assisting people’s understanding of how large a tax is, but never a moral or other obligation, unless it is a matter of law — which Congress has been waiving.

Neither revenue neutrality nor “fairness” nor referring to wants as “needs” nor using the European example are of value as arguments in favor of raising taxes. Even the proportion-of-GDP argument (so often used to justify borrowing) is not acceptable to those of us who know better.