Caveat: I'm not particularly knowledgable about economic stuff. Worse, I may not even be very smart about economic stuff!
I tend to think taxes on middle class families, and below on the economic scale, are probably as high as they should be.I know that historically, income taxes are low, but what matters to people is whether or not they can make ends meet without completely stressing out. Since people's purchasing power has declined, at least psychologically they would not feel like they should carry the same percentage tax burden that they carried 35 years ago.
While I can't say that I'm particularly fond of the idea of taxing rich people more, either, if it's necessary, I don't have a problem with that. And, as we've read these past few weeks, some bona fide rich people have no problem with that, either. (Sorry, don't want to search for a reference.)
We also know that even most Republican rank-and-file don't want Medicare or SS cut. While I don't think I've seen polling, directed to Republican rank-and-file, which asks, "Would you be willing for taxes on rich people to be raised, possibly up to a limit of X%, if it meant preserving Medicare and SS during a prolonged recession?", where X is a reasonable number, I believe that such a poll would find that most Republicans would answer "yes".
And so, now we get to the Grover Norquist Taxpayer Protection Pledge, which is causing severe problems in the current budget battles.
I want to make a 2 part suggestion, which won't make a difference over the next few months, but could be huge in coming years.
The First Suggestion is to come up with a more flexible pledge, that's still still fiscally conservative, but not so much of a straight-jacket as the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. E.g., "I, Senator Snodgrass, do solemnly swear to never raise taxes on the middle class and below, and to raise taxes on upper middle income brackets no more than 5%, upper class 10%, and rich 15%."
I would extend the pledge by promising to perform an audit to determine "waste, fraud, abuse, and corporate welfare". Repubs like the "waste, fraud, and abuse" verbiage, but they seem reluctant to talk about corporate welfare. That needs to change.
The 2nd Suggestion is designed to make the First Suggestion meaningful, since Grover Norquist has what you could call a tradition, going, and habits of both Republican rank-and-file, as well as Republican politicians, will be hard to change. I have recently argued for progressives to invade the Republican House of Representatives' primaries, running even minimalist campaigns which don't have the pressure of raising lots of money, since they're mostly intended to a) spark a movement b) educate and c) organize. Inspired by jeffroby's original Full Court Press plan to push the Democratic Party in a leftwards direction, I sketched out my own proposed variation on that theme in Wanted: Republicans who plan to sell off CA and NY, to pay the national debt, targetting Republican primaries. In that diary, I wrote:
This diary is to suggest a different kind of Full Court Press (FCP) - one that targets Republican primaries. The goals here are 1) to drive wedges between Republican leadership and the Republican rank-and-file and 2) to try and get better Republicans elected, by forcing the debates in the direction of issues where the Republican leadership is way out of line with the Republican base. A Republican FCP would adopt mainstream Republican positions (so, be prepared to hold your nose), but with notable exceptions. I have recommended: 1) not cutting Social Security 2) not cutting Medicare and 3) not selling off of public assets, such as streets, ports, and parks, to private entities.
The 'Republicans' would be progressives, not dyed-in-the-wool Republicans. Especially for progressives who live in strongly Republican or conservative districts, nothing they say or do is going to make much difference on the Democratic side of things, anyway. Consequently, in such uber-red districts, an optimal political strategy to pursue is to boldly go forth where no progressives have gone, before! Yes, take a trek onto the Republican side of politics!
I now wish to add a 4th common position to embrace, across the entire field of progressive Republican Full Court Press candidates, viz., Adopt the 'Metamartian' Taxpayer Protection Plan, and renounce the Grover Norquist Taxpayer Protection Plan as too extreme. Of course, you wouldn't call it the "Metamartian" plan. Maybe the Eisenhower or Reagan Taxpayer protection plan. Or whatever - I don't have any particularly good ideas regarding a name. However, the memes that would be pushed are ones of sanity, which nevertheless exhibit restraint and (intended) financial prudence. And the teaching opportunity for progressives, in shedding light amongst their Republican neighbors, would not be limitied to our current difficulties, and how the Bush tax cuts were the biggest drivers of our current deficit, but also how putting rigid tax ceilings into law in California have caused hardship, there, also.
I'd also teach on the relationship between "3) not selling off of public assets, such as streets, ports, and parks, to private entities." and the new 4), and talk about our underfunded infrastructure renewal needs. I really believe that Republican rank-and-file will mostly be furious at the need to sell off public assets to pay for government expenditures, and would prefer that rich people pay more, rather than sell off the Grand Canyon. They'd also rather the rich pay more, rather than the US flirt with default and credit rating downgrades.
Republican Full Court Press Candidates should also teach the sorry history of Republicans' financial mismanagement, who tend to be adept at cutting taxes, but not cutting spending commensurately, as was written about by Paul Rosenberg at OpenLeft, e.g. in Once again: It's REPUBLICANS who caused America's exploding debt
The airwaves are dominated by right-wing talking heads, who aren't going to level with their audience about the Republicans' fiscally irresponsible ways. Progressives need to do more than hurl epithets at both their noise machine, and also their rank-and-file, who may well be semi-brain-washed. I have suggested many ways of injecting progressive memes into the minds of the "unblogged masses", including Rush Limbaugh ditto-heads, and the like. E.g., I have recently written about blogs embracing pamphleting to go beyond "blogging to the choir". In this vein, see How squeegees can help save America, and your sanity - going beyond blogging to the choir and Status Quo Busters: How FDL+DK+DU progressives can 'cross the beams' and revolutionize politics
A Republican Full Court Press is yet another means to reach out to your fellow citizens, who may have swallowed too much Rush Limbaugh goofiness for their own good, and yours. Such an effort would do well to displace Grover Norquist's rigid pledge - avoiding financial chaos is a goal that any American can sign onto.
