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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Daschle and Bush spin debate on stimulus |
Current rating: 0 |
by Ben Fritz, Spinsanity
(No verified email address) |
08 Jan 2002
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In the growing debate over economic stimulus and the return of budget deficits, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and President Bush have been spinning the issue by avoiding specifics, both on policy and in the labels they use. |
In the growing debate over economic stimulus and the return of budget deficits, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and President Bush have been spinning the issue by avoiding specifics, both on policy and in the labels they use.
The exchanges between the two began last Friday when Daschle gave a speech on economic policy in which he attacked the tax cut supported by President Bush was signed into law last spring. Daschle said the tax cut has contributed to the ongoing recession by raising long-term interest rates and has "put [the nation] in an unnecessary fiscal bind at the worst possible time."
If Daschle thinks the tax cut was irresponsible, surely he must advocate repealing some of it. Despite his comments, though, the Senate Majority Leader has not explicitly taken such a position in an apparent attempt to avoid Republican attacks. In fact, he called on Bush to make that difficult decision, stating, "I am asking the President today to submit to Congress not simply a one-year budget proposal, but a long-term plan to restore economic growth. We need a plan to return to fiscal discipline..."
Thus, even though his statements clearly imply that that tax cut should be repealed at least in part, Daschle has evaded that position. When criticized for this by Republicans, he issued a statement in which he said, "Let me be clear, I proposed short-term tax cuts to create jobs and generate investment and long-term fiscal discipline, not tax increases." Such evasions are disingenuous, as Daschle is trying to take credit for the alleged mistakes of the Republican tax bill, without proposing a specific fix.
Also tricky, however, have been Republican efforts to label Daschle's attacks a call to raise taxes. In a town hall meeting on Saturday, President Bush said, "There's going to be people who say, we can't have the tax cut go through anymore. That's a tax raise. And I challenge their economics, when they say raising taxes will help the country recover. Not over my dead body will they raise your taxes."
Bush's logic in implying that rescinding future tax cuts is in fact a raise is questionable at best. Although some might argue doing so can have a similar impact on the economy if citizens have already acted in expectation that the Bush tax cuts will take place, the phrase "tax raise" implies in many people's minds that taxes will go up from where they are today. And neither Daschle nor any other prominent Democrat has made such a proposal, explicitly or implicitly.
The debate over taxes and the economy would be a much healthier one if Senator Daschle were more honest about just what he means by "a plan to restore fiscal discipline" and if President Bush used a more honest description of Daschle's implicit proposal than "a tax raise."
Copyright (c) 2001 by Ben Fritz, Bryan Keefer and Brendan Nyhan. May be distributed only subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the Open Publication License, v1.0 or later (the latest version is available at http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/). Distribution of substantively modified versions of the contents of this website is prohibited without the explicit permission of the copyright holders. Distribution of the contents of the website or derivative of the work in any standard (paper) book form is prohibited unless prior permission is obtained from the copyright holders. |
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