Over at TPM Cafe, the Piper sounds the alarm over tax reform. Good man, somebody needs to be doing it. The logic for the Bush administration here is fairly simple: they lost on Social Security reform, Iraq isn't going to be a selling point, the election needs something else to turn on. Why not run back to that conservative mainstay, taxes? Democrats will obstruct regressive changes, changes that can be delivered in a package complicated enough to obscure their nature, and the Republicans can thus blame Democrats for holding up tax simplification and/or relief.
They hate the children, those Democrats.
I've been studying tax policy recently and am going to ramp it put in the coming months. Soon -- maybe next week? -- I'll be writing a Health of Nations style feature on different systems of taxation. I've got to study it anyway, may as well share the wealth. Also worth checking out is the American Prospect's recent feature on tax policy, though I thought Celinda Lake's article on framing the debate was weak (I'll have more to say on that tomorrow, probably), and it proved we've got more work to do on that front. In any case, keep all this in mind. If Tax Reform takes off, Social Security will be but a memory. And Rove, knowing Social Security is our strong point and taxes are his, will do everything in his power to make sure the next election is fought on his ground. Democrats will have to be ready for it.
