Essays

The Cost of Radical Anti-Tax Rhetoric

Mitchell, Lincoln A.

Opposition to almost all taxes has been the defining characteristic of the Republican Party for several decades. At least as far back as the late 1970s, the Republican Party has identified cutting taxes as the key to solving almost any economic problem. For Republican ideologues the best way to stimulate the economy, create jobs, balance the budget, bring people out of poverty, improve education, develop a better health care system or virtually anything else has, for some time now, been to cut taxes. This has been an important part of the Re publican Party's electoral appeal, and indeed message, for most of this time. Most people don' t like paying taxes; and it is not hard to convince people that they are taxed too heavily, despite the ample evidence to the contrary. Similarly, in a country as large and complex as the U.S., it is never difficult to find government and bureaucratic waste to us e as "proof" that tax dollars are being wasted.

Files

  • thumnail for Cost_of_Radical_Anti-Tax_Rhetoric.pdf Cost_of_Radical_Anti-Tax_Rhetoric.pdf application/pdf 15.8 KB Download File

Also Published In

Title
Huffington Post
Publisher
TheHuffingtonPost.com

More About This Work

Academic Units
Harriman Institute
Published Here
September 27, 2011