These are the days when I fear for my country most: the biggest domestic issue of the campaign has received almost no coverage – the fate of the 2001 “Bush tax cut.” Tonight’s Republican debate had the usual amount of discussion on the issue, namely, zero (New York Times, feel free to look at all eighteen links that comprise the debate transcript; you will not find a word on the subject).
This is shocking, The 2001 tax reduction was the most salient economic event of the 21st century. It turned a multi-year, September 11th-impacted depression into an eight-month recession. It has pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average well over 13,000 – and for a time, past 14,000. It spawned the fifth longest period of economic growth in American history.
Yet, it is not permanent. The 2001 tax cut “sunsets” in 2011 – meaning the American people will suddenly have to pay hundreds of billions of dollars in higher taxes four years from now. It is – forgive the hyperbole – America’s financial September 11th, except that it’s completely predictable and avoidable.
Now, each of the four leading GOP candidates (or perhaps I should say, each of the five leaders minus Mike Huckabee) supports extending the tax cuts – at least if the AP and CNN are to be believed – but none of them have, as far as I can tell, made it a centerpiece of their campaign. This mistake must be fixed. This is the one issue – taxes – where Republicans can regain the trust of voters (for all his faults, no one has accused President Bush of being a tax-hiker). If the American people understand that a vote for a Democratic presidential or Congressional candidate is a vote for a multi-hundred-billion-dollar-tax-increase, they will reject the Democrats en masse.
I know from where I speak: I watched desperate Republicans use the tax issue to stave off Democratic realignment in New Jersey (where I grew up) for ten years, while in Virginia (where I live know), Republicans have blown several winnable races due to their chaotic response to the tax issue.
The Republican Party needs the economic conservative message in order to win. Without it, we lose. It’s that simple. Meanwhile, a tax increase as heavy as the 2001 tax ct “sunset” will deal the economy a horrific blow. We cannot allow that to happen, and as Republicans – the party who actually knows something about the economy – we have a duty as Americans to stop it. I just hope our presidential candidates understand the urgency.
