Published in the New York Post on October 18, 2008
Ronald Reagan’s most important contribution to the American political dialogue was his ability to move the tax issue from an economic-populist issue into a populist, blue-collar one. Under George W. Bush, however, the issue has switched back to one of class warfare, as increasing numbers of Americans have paid no taxes at all and the rates on those who did pay taxes fell. Now, a chance encounter with “Joe the Plumber” has afforded the Republicans the chance to use taxes as a blue-collar issue.
The opening Joe provided and John McCain skillfully exploited in the third presidential debate gives the GOP ticket its first long shot at victory since McCain punted on the terrible, pork-laden, corporate-giveaway “rescue” bill Congress passed and Bush signed. Obama’s tax plans and spending programs have emerged as the key point of difference between the campaigns. And the Democrat’s comment to Joe that he saw his tax policy as a “way to spread the wealth around” underscores the motive behind his program: to redistribute income. Obama might as well have told Joe, “I want to take the hard earned money you make fixing pipes and give it to other people.”
If the Republican Party concentrates its fire on the tax issue and the redistributionist impulse behind Obama’s plans, it can close the Democratic lead point by point, day by day, until the election. McCain’s campaign must resist the temptation to take random shots on other issues and zero in on the tax-and-spend issue, stressing how taxes penalize those who work hard and live right.
In fact, the rich are paying vastly more in taxes than they ever have. “Reality Check,” by Dennis Keegan and David West, points out that the percentage of income-tax revenues paid by the top percent of the population has almost doubled in the last 20 years; it now pays 40 percent of all income tax. (The bottom half in income pays less than 3 percent.) Despite the lower rates, the rich are paying more in taxes because they are earning more and more. In the last eight years, real, after-inflation income growth for the top 10 percent of the population has been more than 45 percent.
Essentially, the tax debate comes down to economic populism versus social populism. The Democratic economic populists rail against the rich and demand that they pay more in taxes. The Republican social populists decry the notion of income redistribution as rewarding failure and penalizing hard work. Until Joe, the economic-populist polarity dominated the presidential race to the detriment of the Republicans. But now Joe has brought the social-populist argument back to life.
Because there always are, there will doubtless be those who see the social-populist approach as a code word for racism, especially because it is directed against the proposals of an African-American candidate. But the dichotomy that social populism exploits is one that separates the most productive members of our work force from the others, in the spirit of Joe the Plumber. Race is quite beside the point.
The question is whether McCain has the discipline to pursue the tax issue doggedly for the rest of the campaign. The other targets - from Bill Ayers to ACORN - are so tempting but ultimately appeal to the Republican base and few others. But taxes hit us all.
The core difference between the American working class and its European equivalents is that Europeans are inclined to vote based on their current condition while Americans base their decisions more on their goals and objectives for the future. Americans assume upward mobility while Europeans do not. Each nation’s workers are correct in their assessments.
Despite the widening gap between the richest 20 percent and the poorest in the United States, the economic chart is constantly churning. People are always moving out of the bottom fifth and up the scale, their places at the bottom of the ladder yielding to new arrivals, usually from abroad. So Americans are right to vote their dreams. Obama’s European socialist tendency to sabotage growth in the interests of “fairness” merely serves to convert an American model that works into a European one that does not.
 |
Comments
Only subscribers to Dick Morris' '08 Play-By-Play may post comments. You must be logged in to post a comment.
[…] leave a comment » By Dick Morris […]
Dick Morris, Bravo, your points are very well articulated. People from all across the world yearn to live in our Land of Opportunity because anyone can make it here through determination and honest hard work. American’s economic/life planning decisions are based on rational expectations about their own future’s potential and one of the most damaging actions any government can take is to create uncertainty, especially around the tax code. John McCain needs to continue to repeat the mantra “I will not raise anyone’s taxes” because it is in the nation’s best interest in these troubling times. John McCain needs to contrast this very basic promise to Obama’s “95% of you will get a tax cut” sleight of hand as just a bunch of tax credits that benefit our population unevenly and unfairly. Americans want fairness, but we are left to wonder how much of a tax credit we might each qualify for under Obama’s plan. Obama’s plan implicitly creates this uncertainty and John McCain needs to explicitly expose this “Big Government Knows Best” mentality for what it is, unfair. The choice for America is between McCain’s “fair for everyone plan” versus “complicated, you might qualify…”; Obama couldn’t even articulate the complications of his own plan to Joe the Plumber and finally resorted to his “spread the wealth around” comment as a summary of his ideas. In this recession that faces our nation today, the American economic system is coming under a lot of criticism around the world by world leaders that do not want their own populations to have the same kind of economic freedoms that Americans enjoy. Let’s not panic and throw the baby out with the bath water here. Let’s tighten our belts and pull up our boots, only hard work will get us through this crisis, not hand-outs and empty “gimme your vote” promises. Get back to tough straight talk. McCain also needs to make the point that America has had recessions and corrections before and America will ultimately prevail, but it’s going to take a lot of hard work. Be up front with people, Sarah Palin’s note about personal responsibility in her debate was her high point. You know, last time I checked there are an awful lot of unemployed bankers roaming around Wall Street these days, and that’s justice, the market will continue to serve justice handidly. John McCain, take the high road to fairness and personal responsibility, now that’s inspiring for working Americans! I’m a working American and I’m going to the polls to vote for fairness and personal responsibility! I’m getting all fired up, your great Dick, thanks!
In my view, the challenge for Senator McCain on the tax issue is that Senator Obama has not been candid with where the taxes will fall in an Obama administration. He has almost a trillion dollars in new spending, but only a fraction of that has been covered with his proposed tax increases on incomes over 250K. Either the deficit will balloon, or the tax burden will fall squarely on the entire middle class.
That, I suspect, is why McCain keeps turning to these other issues, such as Obama’s lack of candor on Ayers, and his false promise to take public financing. They show that Obama’s word cannot be trusted on any issue, including taxes. It is hard for the public to believe that such a nice and pleasant candidate as Obama could be untrustworthy. He seems sincere. He may even be sincere, fooling himself before he fools others. (Like another Ivy League lawyer-Democrat-turned-presidential candidate, with whom Mr. Morris may be familiar …)
[…] dan una tregua. Parece que ha sido capaz de reducir la distancia hasta 5,8 puntos. No se me animen mucho los republicanos. La tendencia empezó antes del debate y, por supuesto, mucho antes de que Colin […]
Dick you are so right. The republicans need to protect Joe and go after Obama on this issue day after day until the election. You made the prediction that like Bush the first used the tax issue and each day he used it his lead increased and close on Clinton. The Republican Blue bloods need to shut up and get behind the average American conservative. I would have Joe on most of my trips into all blue color areas I went if I was running and high light the tax issue and the attempt of the Obama campaign and the Obama media to destroy this average American. Believe me it show and is having an effect. Consentrate on this issue. Stay on measage!!!
I am very grateful that you are appearing on Fox News often. One point that I have not heard expressed very clearly, I have experienced in my family. I have two kids, one wanted to go to college, the girl, the other,the boy, did not. We did not have the money to send her through college, so she obtained grants and worked for the college to pay her way through. The boy went to work for Sears Automotive after High School. Sears sent him to their Training School in Georgia, we lived in Key West at the time. He worked for sears for a few years and then started his own automotive shop. He was very successful. Soooo he did not want to go to college or to assume the large debt that my daughter did. Would a similar case today mean that the boy would actually have to pay for the girl through taxation to obtain the college degree?