The Truth About the Myths About the Bush Tax Cuts

Last week the Brian M. Riedl posted his Ten Myths About the Bush Tax Cuts with accompanying "truths," nearly all of which (myths #3 and #6 do contain a kernel of mythology) struck me as dorm bull-session sophistry. Myth #8 is especially grating, though I'm happy to know that "pro-growth tax cuts" are the Official Euphemism for "tax cuts for the rich" (more on my irritation with "growth" here).

Anyway the good folks at Angry Bear are toppling the "myths" one by one. And it goes without saying that not one of Riedl's "myths" acknowledge the fact that tax avoidance, tax competition, and tax fraud run rampant among upper income brackets, and that falling revenues probably have much (or everything) to do with these moral hazards than with federal policy changes.

Richard Murphy confronts this last point at his blog, where he also unearths a password-protected Wall Street Journal editorial which uses the new tax gap as springboard for pimping another absurdly regressive flat tax. (The cardboard corpse of Steve Forbes: Presidential Candidate rattles often on the WSJ editorial page, don't it?)

Well anyway, at least now the Democratic Congress is trying to do something about this tax mess, though not without antagonizing the "small business lobby" (which is really a hand puppet of the big-business lobby, and both sure do a lot of play-acting as "victim" when socially defensible legislation hits the Hill).