Monday, January 26, 2004

Helpful Advice

Came across this last week, but finally getting around to it. Howard Gleckman wrote an article on "Why the Democrats Can't Win on Taxes. It's one of those articles that pretends to be giving helpful advice to Democrats while, in reality, giving them bad advice and explaining why they don't have a prayer. Check out this helpful advice.

"But many analysts fear these Presidential hopefuls are playing right into the hands of the GOP. After all, in the game of political word association, when a Democrat says "tax," voters think "hike." And in a battle with Bush, who has made tax-cutting his signature domestic priority, Dems risk coming out a distant second. "Democrats are better off changing the subject," says William G. Gale, a tax economist at the Brookings Institution. "Trying to outdo Bush on taxes is neither good politics nor good policy."

On the other hand, it's totally irresponsible for Democrats to suggest that the Bush Tax Cuts won't have to be dealt with at some point. It's also clear that regardless of what Democrats say, the Republicans are going to say, at every opportunity, "Democrats are going to raise your taxes." So is it really better to just cede that discussion to the Republicans and focus on education? I think the Democratic Candidates are doing the right thing by explaining their plans and how they differ from Republican tax schemes.

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