Giuliani’s Tax Cuts
Rudy released his tax plan today, and as Kevin Drum explains, not only does he want to make the Bush cuts permanent, he also wants to slash capital gains and corporate taxes, while eliminating the estate tax. In short, he’s trying to make sure rich people get to keep as much money as possible. It’s obvious that I disagree with his plan almost entirely, with the possible exception of a corporate tax reduction, I really dont think that what America needs is to reduce the tax burden of the wealthiest sector of the population.
What is interesting about Giuliani’s fiscal vision is how well it conforms to his hagiography of Reagan. In the ABC debate before the New Hampshire primary, Giuliani emphasized how important it was for a president to have goals and vision for his time in office. He claimed that Reagan wanted to do three things “cut taxes, expand the military and reduce the deficit. He could only manage two out of three.” Rudy then laughed, and it seemed like the inconsistency between those three goals was so glaring, that he could only pretend he was half kidding. But if we look at Rudy’s goals today, his basic plan is to slash taxes 2.5 times more than the Bush administration, expand the military by ten combat brigades, massively increase homeland security spending on the border, and purchase a next generation of fighter jets and submarines. But what about the budget deficits, you ask? Well, as we all know from Hizzoner, the idea that tax cuts reduce revenue is a “liberal assumption” that he doesn’t have. When you look at his plans of massive military spending along with tax cuts without that pesky liberal assumption, everything starts to make a bit more sense.
