The Return of the Tax Fairy
Conservatives gear up to defend the expiring Bush-era tax cuts.
Paul Waldman
The American Prospecct
August 3, 2010
"The apportionment of taxes," wrote James Madison in Federalist No. 10, "is an act which seems to require the most exact impartiality; yet there is, perhaps, no legislative act in which greater opportunity and temptation are given to a predominant party to trample on the rules of justice. Every shilling with which they overburden the inferior number, is a shilling saved to their own pockets."
Things have gotten quite a bit more complicated since Madison's day, and today one can look at his warning in different ways, depending on where one sits. It could mean simply that we ought to watch out for legislators twisting the tax code to benefit those who don't deserve it. Or it could mean that we ought to forever guard against the rabble putting too great a burden on that most oppressed of all minorities, the wealthy.
The idea of legislators shaping policy to directly benefit their own personal bank accounts is largely a relic of a bygone era. It may happen from time to time, but today's professional political class is usually more interested in helping the patrons who put them where they are. Not that it doesn't feel personal for some people. You might remember that when Paul O'Neill, George W. Bush's first Treasury secretary, objected in late 2002 to cutting taxes for the wealthy because it would increase the deficit, he was shot down by Dick Cheney. "We won the midterms," Cheney said. "This is our due." It certainly helped the VP -- one analysis showed the Bush cuts were worth $110,932 to the Cheneys in 2006 alone.
(More here.)
Paul Waldman
The American Prospecct
August 3, 2010
"The apportionment of taxes," wrote James Madison in Federalist No. 10, "is an act which seems to require the most exact impartiality; yet there is, perhaps, no legislative act in which greater opportunity and temptation are given to a predominant party to trample on the rules of justice. Every shilling with which they overburden the inferior number, is a shilling saved to their own pockets."
Things have gotten quite a bit more complicated since Madison's day, and today one can look at his warning in different ways, depending on where one sits. It could mean simply that we ought to watch out for legislators twisting the tax code to benefit those who don't deserve it. Or it could mean that we ought to forever guard against the rabble putting too great a burden on that most oppressed of all minorities, the wealthy.
The idea of legislators shaping policy to directly benefit their own personal bank accounts is largely a relic of a bygone era. It may happen from time to time, but today's professional political class is usually more interested in helping the patrons who put them where they are. Not that it doesn't feel personal for some people. You might remember that when Paul O'Neill, George W. Bush's first Treasury secretary, objected in late 2002 to cutting taxes for the wealthy because it would increase the deficit, he was shot down by Dick Cheney. "We won the midterms," Cheney said. "This is our due." It certainly helped the VP -- one analysis showed the Bush cuts were worth $110,932 to the Cheneys in 2006 alone.
(More here.)
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1 Comments:
Could a liberal or progressive tell me how much tax money is enough? I'm interested becasue I am not really sure if I have ever heard a liberal or progressive provide the 'ideal' level of taxation. If no amount is ever enough, what's the point?
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