Posted by
The Proud Liberal on Sunday, June 08, 2008 11:11:26 AM
Thirty years ago conservatives were the leaders in proclaiming that an unbalanced federal budget was a crime and a sin, since it saddled our children and grandchildren with a debt they had nothing to do with accumulating. An unbalanced budget, they said, is a tax on our unborn children.
During the same era they would loudly proclaim that "there is no free lunch," meaning that if you got something, especially from government, it had to be paid for somewhere along the way and in ways that might not be clear at the time the something was given.
And, at the same time, conservatives proclaimed that taxes stiffled the American economy, that you got less of whatever you taxed, that taxes were passed on to the consumer and Americans didn't gain by taxing corporations, they ended up paying the taxes themselves.
And, at the same time, they proclaimed that "liberals are in favor of taxing and spending."
Over the years two problems have emerged with all this rhetoric. The first is that studies show that tax cuts only help grow our economy on the very margin, that growth is really promoted by long term effects of new technology. The second is that studies show that tax cuts do not readily pay for themselves, that it takes a very long time to make up the lost taxes.
Thirdly, conservatives typically duck and evade the contradiction between "taxing and spending" and "no free lunch."
To get something you must pay for it.