Candidates' tax plans

I was reading this morning in the Times about the various presidential candidates' tax plans, as well as a related article in the business section about some hard-to-dispute truths about the effect of taxes on economic growth. I personally believe that continued tax breaks for the very wealthy is bad policy. Our government is running at an enormous deficit, and while I don't like paying taxes either, when a country is at war it's got to pay for it somehow.

A couple of things really stand out to me as remarkable. First, I am actually somewhat surprised that all of the Republican candidates are planning to make the Bush tax cuts permanent. Perhaps I'm being naive, but I would have expected *someone* to have a different stance on these. For one thing, tax cuts are simply not tied to economic growth. The economy has grown substantially in eras of decreasing taxes, as well as in those of increasing taxes. There is no proof that these tax cuts have done anything to stimulate the economy.

But more than that, I find the Republican candidates' strategies for paying for these cuts to be remarkable. McCain appears to have given it the most thought by proposing we prioritize our spending, although part of his prioritization includes eliminating things like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. While I support reform in all three (and can offer very specific recommendations for Medicaid), the elimination of these programs entirely would be complete folly - and since there is absolutely no chance of that happening, to propose this equates to doing nothing. Giuliani plans to cut the budget 5-20% across the board. How simple... but a little more evaluation would probably show that it's easier said than done. Romney's, however, is my favorite: he plans for economic growth. Wow. Such an easy solution - right there under everyone's noses!

I'm not going to pretend that the Democratic candidates' plans are perfect (and Edwards actually gives me a headache), but I do appreciate that they are addressing the growing income gap in this country. Our country's budget deficit needs to be eliminated. That cannot happen without taxes going up. While social issues ruffle feathers and get voters excited, a change in our economic policy needs to be the most important factor in the coming election.