Another Republican is in the White House and another tax cut has been passed. Predictably, all the usual opposition to the tax cuts is being heard from all the usual suspects. This is a tax cut for the rich. This will only serve to widen the income gap. The federal debt will grow. The rich will get richer on the backs of the working poor. Arguing against this stuff is exhausting. No amount of factual evidence shuts down the true believers, nor does a fact-based argument even compel them to argue back in kind – that is with their own set of facts. Their arguments are not arguments at all, but emotional pandering. It’s fear mongering and anger stoking. They should forget their contempt for Trump for just a moment, and consider just how ridiculous their premise is: today, I take 20% of your money and that is good (although 25% would be better). Tomorrow, I will take only 15%, and this will be dangerous and destructive for you.
But somehow they are winning in the popular opinion polls. I believe this is because they make simple, uncomplicated statements, which (if not the complete story) are actually true. Meantime we who favor tax cuts respond with complicated lessons in economics, going hoarse trying to explain how corporate tax breaks actually benefit Joe Sixpack because on a macro level, a majority of that tax savings will be invested in ways that will lower prices, raise salaries, and increase choices. Eventually. On average. Over time. I’m exhausted already. And simultaneously I’m fighting the urge to dive into the economic arguments – like a Jedi Knight resisting the urge to give into his anger. Explaining all that complicated economic stuff is falling right into their trap. We are attempting to combat five word headlines with 5000 word essays.
High taxers, when shouting down a proposed tax cut, focus solely on one fact, which is that the immediate effect of a tax cut is for higher earners to benefit more (in dollars) than lower earners. They are not lying. Tax cuts indeed go disproportionately to the rich. The income gap indeed does widen for an instant after a tax cut. Notice, most of these politicians, like Chuck Schumer, who make these statements, make the statement and then shut up. They don’t explain why tax cuts for the rich are bad, they just let those words float across the airwaves and then peoples’ imaginations do the rest. They are like old-school horror film directors who can scare us without ever actually showing us the monster. Except for that in the case of income tax reductions, there really is no monster, on screen or off.
So what do we do? Well… this might be hard, but we need to remember that we are not the crazy ones. We are not saying that letting me keep my money, or you keep yours, is dangerous to our own well being. They are! Don’t ever forget that. Keep this simple. Remember that all taxation is confiscation. But for heaven’s sake don’t say that out loud. People need to figure out for themselves that taxes are ultimately taken at the point of a gun. They need to go through their own transformation. We cannot transform people but we can attempt to make them face the choice to transform. We can do this by giving them a small taste of their own medicine – meaning put them on the defensive with a simple question and never stop asking it. When we hear a tax cut is bad, ask them to prove it. Why should we always have to be the ones wrapping ourselves around the axle? Let them do it. What high theatre that would be! Tax cut for the poor is bad because it is a smaller cut than that for the rich. Prove it. Tax cut for the rich is bad. Prove it. Tax cut for corporations is bad. Prove it. Tax cut for high earners is bad. Prove it. Prove it. Prove it. Show the evidence. Play out your theory without leaps of logic. Let’s see if you really got game!
We won’t persuade all of them. Some will refuse to be persuaded. But as we persist, as we stay on message, as we let them take a shot at explaining something that cannot be explained, we will start to persuade more than we do today. Eventually. On average. Over time.