There was no small amount of pleasure among Democrats when a scathing news article ran in yesterday's Washington Post highlighting Republican hypocrisy on deficits:
Even as they hammer Democrats for running up record budget deficits, Senate Republicans are rolling out a plan to permanently extend an array of expiring tax breaks that would deprive the Treasury of more than $4 trillion over the next decade, nearly doubling projected deficits over that period unless dramatic spending cuts are made.
... Aides to McConnell said they have yet to receive a cost estimate for the measure. But the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office recently forecast that a similar, slightly more expensive package that includes a full repeal of the estate tax would force the nation to borrow an additional $3.9 trillion over the next decade and increase interest payments on the national debt by $950 billion. That's more than four times the projected deficit impact of President Obama's health-care overhaul and stimulus package combined
Matt Yglesias used the opportunity to remind us that conservatives don't care about the deficit. I would remind Democrats: Neither does the public. Whenever spending and deficits become a top concern among the public -- and even now it is cited by very few as a top priority, from 3 percent to 15 percent depending on the poll -- progressives tend to argue that their concern is less with deficits per se than with government effectiveness. The price tag only becomes important when they feel the government isn't working for them.Luckily, there's a different story to tell -- one that highlights the difference between Democrats and Republicans and still makes policy sense. Over the last decade and a half, the tax burden on the wealthiest people in the country has declined dramatically, even as their share of the national income has risen. Much of that increase in wealth has either come from a swelling financial sector or ended up there, driving the bubble that shattered our economy two years ago. Republicans don't care about the crisis -- they didn't want to re-regulate the financial sector; they didn't want to bolster the economy with stimulus spending; and they don't care if enough money accumulates at the top to knock the whole system down.
This isn't just about budget probity, or even a more progressive and fair tax code, though that is important, too. This is about protecting the economy -- which is what matters to voters today. If Democrats can make the case that the future economic growth will be hindered by keeping taxes on the wealthy low -- and there's plenty of evidence that doing so benefits neither short-term nor long-term growth -- Democrats can tap into voters' real top priority: Accelerating the recovery and getting people back to work.
-- Tim Fernholz
