GOOD Morning: John Kerry Was Right

[whometense]

http://www.brendan-nyhan.com/blog/2005/09/john_kerry_was_.html

September 12, 2005
John Kerry was right

Last Wednesday, I flagged this passage from a John Kerry email to supporters:

How long will it be before start telling us that tax cuts for the wealthy can provide just the stimulus we need to get the Gulf Coast economy moving again?

My response: "I'd say a week, maybe less."

That turned out to be generous. On Sunday, tax-cutting apparatchik Grover Norquist became the first conservative that I've seen use Katrina as a justification for more tax cuts:

Grover Norquist, a leading advocate of substantially reducing the federal government, argued that the disaster only underlined the need for more tax cuts to spur the economy. "Step one is you deal with the problem - rebuild New Orleans," he said, "and step two, you enact economic policies so you can afford to rebuild New Orleans."

Norquist is implying that tax cuts generate revenue rather than reducing it -- a discredited bit of supply-side cant that even Bush administration economist Greg Mankiw has disavowed. And on a deeper level, Norquist has publicly declared that he wants to reduce the size of government by half so he can "drown it in a bathtub." As such, he must not believe that tax cuts will throw off additional revenue -- otherwise government would get bigger and bigger as it cuts taxes more and more (Norquist's stated goal). So we can only conclude that Norquist is being disingenuous.

Who will be the first Republican member of Congress to peddle this nonsense?

Update: I just discovered a nasty Max Sawicky post quoting Norquist making a similar point about the estate tax in a Sept. 2 appeal to senators:

The 2003 tax cut lifted economic growth far beyond what most people expected. We know repeal of the Death Tax will also have a similar effect. And higher levels of economic growth is exactly what the residents of the Gulf Region need at this time to start the rebuilding process for their neighborhoods and more importantly for their lives.

07:33 AM

[whometense]

1. Lest anyone mistake Brendan Nyhan for one of

us,here's his earlier post:

September 08, 2005
John Kerry is right
I'm not a big fan of John Kerry, but this prediction (from an email to supporters) is dead-on:

How long will it be before start telling us that tax cuts for the wealthy can provide just the stimulus we need to get the Gulf Coast economy moving again?

I'd say a week, maybe less.

07:40 AM

He is the co-founder of Spinsanity, a determinedly nonpartisan site dedicated to exposing the truth behind political spin.

[TayTay]

2. Wow! Thanks for posting this

I think this will be an undercurrent of thought for a lot of people.

He was right!

[ginnyinWI]

3. I love it

Your post's title alone made me smile. I thought, of course he's right--and what is he right about this time? :)

Set aside anything else: it's just so good to know that our faith in Kerry was never misplaced. We always have that. The poor fools on the other side who voted for * have got to be squirming now. Well, the smarter ones are. The base is just in denial.

[whometense]

4. My younger son just told me

a great story yesterday. He plays in a blues band whose leader is a white jewish kid who sings the blues like an eighty-year-old who's seen it all. This kid spent time right after high school living and working in Mississippi - and yet - believe it or not, was a Bush voter. I know, I know. Crazy, huh?

Anyway, yesterday this kid admitted he'd lost all faith in Bush. Small victory, but my son said he didn't think this kid would ever see the light. And here he is. I'm sure it helped wake him up that Mississippi was one of the places that suffered. But the point is that these people are Bush's base. If they're abandoning ship there won't be anyone left but the Pat Robertson/Ann Coulter wing. At least mybe we'll finally get a fix on approximately how many of them really exist. You know, all those millions and millions of new evangelical voters Rove brought to the polls last November... :eyes:

[ginnyinWI]

5. yeah I know

All of those "values voters" !

He'll keep his far right-wing base (some still call Cspan in the morning, although there are fewer these days), and the religious right (abortion/gay issues have a firm grip on these people) but the ones who are open to changing, the moderate Repubs are the ones they will lose. Some of them just want to be on the "winning team" and see the Republicans as that team. Not for long, I say. Like TayTay said, something's shaking loose.

[TayTay]

6. This is completely true

The old style Repubs who cared about spending and about smaller government are falling away in droves. It is a talking point of the * Admin that they spend, spend, spend right now in order to bribe people into liking them again in the Gulfport area. This is pissing off the traditional Repubs who want to know where the money is coming from.

The Rethug coalition has been straining at the seams for a while now. This may be the event that tears it apart on logical lines of dissent.

[ginnyinWI]

7. If my parents throw * overboard, I'll REALLY know it's happening

I'm not too hopeful, because they are religious right. Well, they think they are, but I doubt it goes very deep--they don't go to church at all regularly--let's say they just identify with the values. I can't see them ever voting Democrat, but they may just get disillusioned and stop voting at all.
That would be a good outcome too, wouldn't it. If the religious right wing finally got a clue that the Repubs were only using them. It started with Reagan for the 1980 election, and has continued until now. Before that nobody really tried to mobilize them politically. I wonder how well their leaders, Pat Robertson and James Dobson and others are sitting with them. I'll find out if I can--but I have to be sneaky about it so as not to activate their "loyalty in the face of opposition".