Even though the supply-side tax cuts of 2003 triggered an economy strong enough to absorb Gulf Coast hurricane damages, and have paid for themselves with a 32 percent ($78 billion) tax-revenue increase in fiscal year 2005, Democrats are calling for a deal that would repeal those tax cuts in return for minimal budget restraint. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi calls the new GOP budget package “another rip-off of the middle class to give tax cuts to the high end.” So class warfare is alive and well.
Democratic whip Steny Hoyer wants a 1993-type tax-hike deal that (along with the Clinton attempt to nationalize healthcare) cost the Democrats control of both houses for the first time in 40 years. But now it’s Bush who should beware. He can’t forget that his father relinquished a second term when he signed on to the infamous Andrew’s Air Force Base deal for large tax hikes and small spending cuts.
By not campaigning for tax-cut extensions, an omission that has chilled the stock market, and by not supporting tough budget-cutting proposals, the president could be trapping himself into another fateful compromise. Pro-growth, first-principle policies of tax cuts and budget restraint are the hallmarks of Republican political victories. Has the White House forgotten this, or has the “background noise” cat got its tongue?
A batch of good tax-reform ideas from former Sen. Connie Mack has also gone unnoticed by the president and his men. While Mack’s group, which was commissioned by the president, didn’t go far enough toward a flat-tax reform of the income-tax system, it has suggested a number of excellent ideas, such as: abolishing the dividend tax, slashing corporate tax rates, moving to the full cash expensing of business depreciation write-offs for the purchase of new plants and equipment, ending the worldwide taxation of U.S. corporate profits, greatly expanding savings accounts, and abolishing the alternative minimum tax. These proposals could form an optimistic starting point for a full-fledged pro-growth tax-reform debate. But they’ll go nowhere if the White House doesn’t take the lead.
It’s not too late for the president to avoid a shipwreck second term. Nor is it too late for the Republican government in Washington to reestablish a far-reaching policy vision for economic growth. Democratic strategist Bill Galston recently published a memo warning Democrats that “a liberal, anti-war, welfare state, soak the rich liberalism doesn’t sell anymore.” Yet that’s what Democrats are still selling. If Bush has a better product, now’s the time for him to roll out a first-rate merchandising effort.