There is arguably one fact, or more exactly, lie, that has been at the center of American politics for the last twenty-five years: the lie that raising taxes on a small group of wealthy Americans is actually raising taxes on ordinary, middle-class and working-class citizens.
This is a distortion that has been so endlessly recycled and recirculated, that it is easy to forget. It came up, ultimately, in both Gore's campaign against Bush and Kerry's campaign. Over and over again, Republicans give tax breaks to the rich, and claim that they are helping ordinary Americans.
I've never seen a debate among Democrats, however, where this same issue was articulated so clearly. It's not so much that Obama thinks we should raise the social security tax for the wealthiest 6% of Americans and Clinton doesn't. That's a policy disagreement. What IS significant -- hugely significant, I think -- was Obama's ability to show the two different ways that this one policy can be framed:
- As a "trillion-dollar tax increase" that will hurt ordinary Americans.
- As a very targeted tax increase that could not impact anyone except the 6% of Americans who, because they earn over $97,000, don't pay social security tax on some of their income.
This is the difference, quite simply, between a real framing of American society (and thus a framing that could begin to allow rational, fair and progressive economic policy) and a fantasy of American society -- the very fantasy that has been at the heart of Republican's anti-tax, anti-middle class economic policy for so long.
Seems like a really big deal -- and one that it's worthwhile for the progressive blogosphere to highlight. This same argument -- whether taxes applied only to the top 10%, or 6%, or 1% or .5% of the wealthiest Americans are good for or harmful to ordinary, middle-class, working-class and even upper-middle-class Americans -- will, one way or another, be at the center of our campaign against Republicans in 2008.
Obama's line -- that "the wealthiest 6% of Americans are NOT the middle-class" -- is a line that the Democratic party can unite behind, and win behind.