Democrats love taxes

Here’s Robert Robb in the Arizona Republic “Dems should try less double talk”: It's astonishing the extent to which Democrats are permitted to support the status quo in tax policy without actually defending it.

Robb takes a sideways look at tax policy and notes that Democrats hate changing the status quo (e.g. “tax cuts favoring the rich”) but never have the nerve to defend a taxation rate of 35% or the double taxation of dividends that pushes the effective tax rate to 60%.

I liked this little dig at Senator Splunge also:

Kerry says he prefers to temporarily reduce the payroll tax as an economic stimulus. The payroll tax is, indeed, a regressive job-killer. A case can even be made that reducing it on a permanent basis should have priority over reducing the taxation of dividends or lowering personal income tax rates.

But that would require getting real about financing Social Security, which no Democratic candidate for president is going to do.

As 2004 approaches, watch for the DNC to roll out their bi-annual “Scare Grandma” campaign.