RE: Kingfish Award, 1/5: Paul Krugman

by Jason Rosenbaum :: Filed Under Music and Culture, U.S. Domestic Issues :: January 5th, 2009 @ 9:21 pm EST

I don’t even know that people inherently object to taxes - I think they object to taxes most when they feel they’re getting a bum deal.

…

But that doesn’t mean people always favor cutting taxes. If the government can create good jobs, provide decent healthcare, offer dependable pensions, and maintain high standards in infrastructure (trains, internet access, etc), people won’t demand tax cuts.

A couldn’t agree more. The anti-tax movement is a basic obstacle most progressive reforms must climb over to become reality. But, as Alex points out, most people, when shown the value of good government working for them, are more inclined to pay taxes.

So, how do we kill the anti-tax movement? I’d put forward that we do it by pushing Obama but not to the point of purity. More importantly, we do it by passing our reforms and letting the results speak for themselves (well, not for themselves, with a generous helping of PR).

I’ve seen some message testing Americans United For Change put out, and the results show public opinion is pretty split on the message of taxes. Specifically, when you ask people whether they’d rather “focus on public investment” or “reduce taxes,” 51% would rather reduce taxes. If you change up the messaging a bit and say “focus on public investment to create jobs” or “reduce taxes,” 61% are for job creation.

Either way, a majority or a large minority of the country wants to simply reduce taxes to fix our economic crisis. It’s a testament to how powerful and well-funded the broad anti-tax coalition is in this country.

Pushing Obama to do more investment and less tax cutting is a good message, especially when tied to job creation. But, coming into the battle over Obama’s economic recovery plan, I’m not going to howl if the eventual package includes some tax cuts, especially if they are the more progressive kind, like the Earned Income Tax Credit. The important thing is for Obama’s plan to pass, and for it to center on massive public investment focused on creating jobs.

Then, we can destroy the anti-tax movement after the plan does what it’s designed to do, create jobs and long term economic growth.