Krugman: Right On The Economy, Right For America

Hard to argue with Paul Krugman's editorial from this morning. He's talking about the remarkable, gymnast-like flexibility of the conservative arguments in favor of tax cuts.

The policies never change — but the arguments for these policies turn on a dime.

When the economy is doing reasonably well, the debate is dominated by hype — by the claim that America’s prosperity is truly wondrous, and that conservative economic policies deserve all the credit.

But when things turn down, there is a seamless transition from “It’s morning in America! Hurray for tax cuts!” to “The economy is slumping! Raising taxes would be a disaster!”

I have always wanted to hear the answer that someone like, say George W. Bush, would give if asked the following question: "When you first entered office in 2001, you said that the economy was growing so quickly, and overall government tax receipts surging so much, that the only responsible thing to do was to 'return the money to the taxpayer.' Then, when it became apparent that the economy was, in fact, already slowing down, you then said that the only option available was to cut taxes, which would spur economic growth. Now, with stagnant economic growth and a possible recession on the horizon, we're told that to do anything other than make permanent the aforementioned tax cuts would doom the economy. So, if economic times both good and bad, and anything in between, are the proper time to cut taxes, is there a time when you ever think raising taxes would be an appropriate course of action?"

I know it's a pipe dream that you'll ever have a media personality ask this question, or that you'll get anything like an honest response out of a halfway intelligent conservative pol who is asked it. But hey, it's my blog. I can dream, right?