Thursday, November 18, 2004

Republicans want to raise your taxes!!!

Atrios notes that if the Democrats take Matthew Yglesias' advice to come out with a revenue neutral tax reform plan before Bush then they will inevitably be accused of raising taxes:

[...] The thing about "revenue neutral" changes to the tax code is that they necessarily raise some taxes and lower others. [...]

The problem with the Democrats having a plan is that it too will inevitably raise taxes on some people, and so coming out with a plan pre-emptively will allow Republicans to screech "Democrats want to raise your taxes!!!!"

I agree. But this brings up an interesting point: if a revenue neutral tax reform plan inevitably results in the raising of taxes on someone then why aren't the Democrats screeching "Republicans want to raise your taxes!!!!"?

Given the proposal to eliminate the state and local tax deductions, I'm sure it would be easy to find a large group of American families who would see their tax burden go up under such a plan. The Democrats should find a representative sample of these people, perhaps one family from each state (just to show how universally bad this idea is), and hold a press conference on the steps of Capital Hill in order to show America the face of the people who will be hurt by Bush's "tax reform" plan.

Democrats need to learn how to attack. Here is an ideal opportunity.

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