Grinch Priorities
Even as some conservative pundits fulminate about an alleged liberal "war on Christmas," the Republican Party is exhibiting a remarkably unseasonable series of real-life policy choices that expose Grinch-like priorities.
Today's Washington Post offers two especially significant examples. In an article detailing religious protests about the impending GOP budget package, which targets safety-net services for the poor while maintaining a hefty new series of tax cuts, here's the response of the House GOP leadership:
To GOP leaders and their supporters in the Christian community, it is not that simple. Acting House Majority Leader Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said yesterday that the activists' position is not "intellectually right."Blunt's statement, of course, reflects the hoary and economically discredited supply-side theory that tax cuts are the Philosopher's Stone of fiscal policy, benefiting the poor who are excluded from its direct benefits.The "right tax policy," such as keeping tax rates low on business investment, "grows the economy, increases federal revenue -- and increased federal revenue makes it easier for us to pursue policies that we all can agree have social benefit," he said.
Worse yet, if that's possible, in another Post article about the House-Senate budget conference, Senate GOP Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) made it clear which kind of tax cuts take priority:
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said Congress may postpone until next year a measure to prevent 15 million households from paying $30 billion under the alternative minimum tax, indicating that extending tax cuts on capital gains and dividends was a higher priority."I feel strongly that capital gains and dividends should be in the bill when it comes back to the Senate floor," Frist told reporters. Of the minimum tax, he said that "in all likelihood, we'll not be able to finalize that until we get back" in 2006....
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the delay of the AMT measure was "a punch in the gut to the middle class." The minimum-tax fix, he said, "should have been our number one tax priority and instead, because of right wing ideological objectives, the middle and upper middle class will suffer and only the very, very wealthy will benefit."
So: The leaders of this Congress have made it pretty clear that their holiday wish list includes a nice big stocking for its partisan constituencies, and a lump of coal for everybody else.
Tomorrow Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) will hold a press conference to discuss the very different priorities of Democrats on taxes, focused on family-friendly policies and overall reform.
And that's timely. Whether or not you think there's a "war on Christmas" under way, the spirit of Christmas is certainly taking a beating in Washington.