Tuesday, April 5, 2011

The Republican Vision for a Static Future

David Brooks in his newest Op/Ed for the New York Times wrote in support for a lot of what Paul Ryan is advocating in his current budget. The op/ed is reasonable, as David Brooks usually is, but it ignores an enormous hole in the entire Republican side of the budget debate, revenue.

Perhaps it's indicative of how successful progressives have been in getting the message out to the public that there is an enormous disparity in the amount of money earned by the wealthy and their respective tax burden that Republicans have stopped talking about the 'Bush Tax Cuts'. Or maybe the message about the almost just as disgusting, that despite the supposedly stifling corporate tax rate that many major corporations pay nothing in taxes and even get rebates in tax money from the government has been heard.

The message from the Republicans seems to have changed from one of cutting taxes to reforming the tax code. They can't make an argument that somehow the wealthy are suffering or that somehow keeping the Bush Tax cuts has changed anything significantly in the progress towards creating jobs when the statistics just don't support their rhetoric.

More importantly, in terms of corporate tax rates, the media has picked up on the fact that corporations are getting tax money in rebates and are getting big kickbacks from the government, like in the case of oil companies. I think the Democratic politicians are starting to frame the argument correctly as they bring these mainstream headlines to their constituents with the message 'why do you have to bear the brunt of the tax revenue'. By insisting that the pain be spread around, which is of course something the Republicans say as they slash crucial public programs aimed at helping the poor and elderly but include even more kickbacks and taxbreaks for corporations, Democrats can regain the focus as the party of the people.

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