Republican Tax Deception

And so it begins. We've known for a while that the Republicans have planned to trot out a tax increase message, as a siamese twin to "cut and run." There have been reports that the GOP would run the national campaign on security, but in local races would try to capitalize on voter concern about the economy by running hard on tax. This makes sense, particularily if you listen to reports like this on NPR this morning, showing discontent over the economy in rural areas (and noting that Dems were doing surprisingly well amongst rural voters.) And, so, no surprise yesterday when President Bush began to roll out the tax message, during a sweep through Florida yesterday. 

Predictability notwithstanding, there is something rather fantastic about all of this. The President says that, if the Democrats win back the House, they would raise taxes. In fact he says they plan to raise taxes. I might be ignorant on this matter, but i no of no such plan. And i can't think of any particular reason why a Democratic house would to do this. Come 2008 Democrats will have to cope with the unexploded bomb of whether to repeal the Bush tax cuts and get slated for raising taxes, or to suck it up and forgoe any hope of returning to fiscal balance. Mark Warner fired the most recent shot on this battle this week, and it'll run all the way through the elections. But that is not relevant in this election. 

The Democrats have neither plans for a tax increase on anything, nor planned increases in spending so large as to infer that a tax increase would be needed, nor any chance of enacting such an increase with a Republican President and a likely Republican Senate. Naively one might that in order to say they will Republicans would at least feel obliged to concoct some sort of rationale for the claims. But no. Check out the RNC - where you will find not a single fact-sheet or issue brief giving any reason why the Democrats might actually raise taxes in practice. Add this together with their other frequent dissembling over rising wages, fast-growing job numbers and falling deficits and it seems clear that out there, beyond the outer-rim of the reality-based community, a passing familiarity with the truth is no longer something to which one should even aspire.