Elections Are Crux Of GOP’s Strategy* (WaPo):
Confronting the worst poll numbers seen in the West Wing since his father went down to defeat, President Bush and his team are focusing on the fall midterm elections as the best chance to salvage his presidency and are building a campaign strategy around tax cuts, immigration and national security.
With the President and his fellow Republicans presently choking on immigration and facing their worst national security numbers since 9/11, tax cuts are really the only issue they have. And with renewed evidence mounting that, counter to administration claims, tax cuts don’t pay for themselves:
At a ceremony on the White House lawn, Bush said his tax cuts had helped the economy grow, “which means more tax revenue for the federal Treasury.”
But a host of studies, some of them written by economists who served in the Bush administration, have concluded that tax reductions result in less money for the Treasury.
The cuts Bush extended Wednesday will cost the Treasury an estimated $70 billion over five years. They may help spur economic growth, but they still lose more revenue than they generate. And unless they’re matched by lower federal spending, they worsen federal budget deficits.
Tax revenues grew by $274 billion in 2005, a 15% increase over the previous year, and receipts are growing this year, too.
But the president’s 2001 and 2003 tax cuts did not generate enough additional revenue to pay for themselves, said Douglas Holtz-Eakin. He was the chief economist for Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers in 2001 and 2002, then the director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) until late last year.
Democrats are of course going to balk at opposing tax cuts. But their cowardice will once again place them on the wrong side of public opinion:
The President and Republicans have lost credibility on literally every issue, and taxes are no different. Democrats have the easiest job in the world, simply oppose by pointing to the facts.
*An unintentionally spot-on headline by the Post? Elections have been their only concern for six years now.