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State of the Union: Not So Good | |
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THE CONSERVATIVE REVIEW
February 1, 2008
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State of the Union: Not So Good
By William F. Buckley
President Bush didn't give Congress, in his State of the
Union address, quite what was expected, especially in the
area of taxation. Several high critics of Bush, most of
them running for president, spoke vociferously about the
need to cut the privileges that flow to the rich through
the tax laws. One critic said that the time had finally
come when the tax burden should move against the wealthy.
President Bush gave them little satisfaction, in part
because there is little satisfaction to be had.
Many listeners were reminded of what they had already
numbly discovered for themselves, namely that the tax
laws are ambiguous, not to say inscrutable. The layman
has no alternative than to read proposed laws impression-
istically, particularly if he is interested in the
political implications. ("It favors the rich!" "It takes
no realistic notice of the need to retool.")
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As to practicalities, an enterprising researcher many
years ago tried phoning six different IRS offices to ask
how to handle a particular line on the income-tax return.
He received six different answers. If professionals cannot
come to the same conclusion as to what the code says, it
is not surprising that calls for tax reforms have attracted
adherents, reaching back to 1972 and the days of George
McGovern, who made reforms a staple of his program; and
carried forward ingeniously on the conservative side of
the aisle by such as Phil Gramm, Dick Armey and Steve
Forbes, with various proposals for a flat income tax or
a consumption tax.
The top marginal tax rate aside, there is the sheer
complexity of it for those millions who must file federal
income-tax returns. Many of them choose, prayerfully,
tearfully, to fill out the short form. Others take the
choice of hunting for all available exemptions, deductions
and depreciations, and then suffering the torment of
wondering whether they took full advantage of every
possibility. The exhausted, and the semi-exhausted, are
asking the question: Why should it be so complicated?
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The reason why tax reform is so complicated is that
reformers seek out jungle leaves writhing for the sunlight,
toward such rays of justice and equity as are discernible
at any given moment in American politics -- the moment
when the action freezes, as for a photographer, for just
long enough to permit one set of claimants to overshadow
another. Thus a tax reform is born, and for that brief
moment we have a new law that is taken as expressive of
social policy. It is an assertion of justice understood
as a blend of considerations: the necessities of the
state, the toleration of the body politic, the relation-
ships of power among the affected interests.
Some critics fault President Bush for not pushing harder
to raise corporate taxes. At present, corporate taxes
account for between 7 percent and 11 percent of all the
revenues taken in by the federal government. This is down
drastically from the 1950s, when corporate taxes brought
in 30 percent of federal revenues. It is, however, not
the tax one wants immediately to contemplate raising
when we are running the largest trade deficits in history.
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Bush attacked directly the so-called earmarks, and he did
so persuasively. But earmarks, while the least defensible
federal spending, do not account for a large proportion
of the federal budget.
George W. Bush tried -- flirted with -- doing something
about Social Security. Ronald Reagan tried --flirted with
-- doing something about Social Security. But real reform
ran up against political walls, and so the underlying
problem remains, getting worse every year. President Bush
is framed by these realities -- with 1 1/2 wars going on.
Some of us dare to say that his sheer decency shines
through even the tangle he has to account for, and for
which he bears a substantial share of responsibility.
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