On Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 7:30 AM, Robert Naiman <[email protected]> wrote: > > I've been wondering how it is that raising taxes during a recession got to > be a progressive line in the sand. Isn't it a good thing - all else equal - > that the tax cuts will be extended temporarily? > Yes, of course, in the set of all stimulus measures, lower taxes on the rich > are relatively inefficient. So, if raising taxes on the rich would enable > some other, more efficient stimulus it would be a good thing. But is that > the case? I see no evidence for it. If raising taxes on the rich will simply > reduce the deficit, why should this be a progressive line in the sand? The > deficit is too small.
The problem is the incoherence of the rhetoric. Deficits are the biggest problem when talking about health care for the poor, but it is apparently perfectly ok to increase deficits when it comes to tax cuts for the rich. So it is not a question of drawing a "line in the sand", but more a question of reframing the debate. -raghu. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
