Matthew Continetti: Avoiding the Austerity Trap
[Matthew Continetti is an associate editor at the Weekly Standard.]
Republicans better sign up for yoga class between now and the start of the 112th Congress. They have a difficult balancing act ahead of them, and the performance will require incredible dexterity....
In the austerity trap, you lose tactical battles over spending while passing up strategic opportunities to promote economic growth. You mistake thrift for an end in itself, rather than a means to a prosperous, virtuous society. Plunge deep enough into the trap, and you become the tax collector for the welfare state. This isn’t new; the GOP’s been caught in the austerity trap before. During the wilderness years from 1960 to 1980, voters elected Republicans only to clean up the messes left behind by liberal Democrats....
It’s been almost 25 years since Ronald Reagan and a Democratic Congress closed tax loopholes while lessening the tax burden. Yet in the years following the 1986 tax overhaul, both Republicans and Democrats wasted no time carving out exemptions that favored the wealthy and well connected. Another bite at the reform apple is long overdue. We’re happy to report that the White House seems open to significant changes in the tax code; the president’s commission on tax reform, chaired by Paul Volcker, issued a report in August that recommended lowering the corporate tax rate while eliminating corporate welfare....
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Republicans better sign up for yoga class between now and the start of the 112th Congress. They have a difficult balancing act ahead of them, and the performance will require incredible dexterity....
In the austerity trap, you lose tactical battles over spending while passing up strategic opportunities to promote economic growth. You mistake thrift for an end in itself, rather than a means to a prosperous, virtuous society. Plunge deep enough into the trap, and you become the tax collector for the welfare state. This isn’t new; the GOP’s been caught in the austerity trap before. During the wilderness years from 1960 to 1980, voters elected Republicans only to clean up the messes left behind by liberal Democrats....
It’s been almost 25 years since Ronald Reagan and a Democratic Congress closed tax loopholes while lessening the tax burden. Yet in the years following the 1986 tax overhaul, both Republicans and Democrats wasted no time carving out exemptions that favored the wealthy and well connected. Another bite at the reform apple is long overdue. We’re happy to report that the White House seems open to significant changes in the tax code; the president’s commission on tax reform, chaired by Paul Volcker, issued a report in August that recommended lowering the corporate tax rate while eliminating corporate welfare....