Beware when National Public Radio goes looking for “nonpartisan” analysts to assess Republican tax-cut proposals. In a Wednesday piece on Morning Edition, correspondent Scott Horsley lined up Herman Cain and Rick Perry for “correction” from the left.
Horsley’s first “nonpartisan” expert was Joseph Thorndike, who recently wrote that President Obama and the Democrats may finally be making the case for some invigorating tax increases:
Democrats have a long way to go. They are nowhere near breaking the bad tax news to lower- and middle-income Americans. But they finally have a president who is trying to restore the value proposition that lies at the heart of progressive governance.
"We all want a government that lives within its means," Obama said last week. "But there are still things we need to pay for as a country -- things like new roads and bridges; weather satellites and food inspection; services to veterans and medical research."
And there it is: the hoary "price of civilization" argument that Oliver Wendell Holmes made famous and American voters made reality. With taxes, we do buy civilization. But Democrats have been afraid to say so for decades. Finally, they may be starting to speak up.
Thorndike is coming at Democrats from the left. To NPR, this makes him a pitch-perfect “nonpartisan” expert to whack Republicans.
HORSLEY: Joseph Thorndike, who directs the nonpartisan Tax History Project, says now that Cain has jumped to the top tier in Republican polls, other GOP hopefuls are rushing to play catch up.
THORNDIKE: Herman Cain has really changed the debate, I think. I didn't really think that his plan would ever rise above the level of being treated as a gimmick. But people have really latched on to his idea.
HORSLEY: Rick Perry jumped in yesterday with his 20 percent flat tax option. And Newt Gingrich is suggesting a flat tax of 15 percent. Still, if Cain's success shows the intuitive appeal of a flat tax, Thorndike says it also demonstrates the hazard of bumper-sticker economics.
THORNDIKE: When he starts out with a 9-9-9 and everyone says this is horribly regressive, and he says, well, actually I meant a 9-0-9 for people under a certain amount of income. And I'm telling you that's not the last change that Herman Cain is going to have to make in the 9-9-9, or anybody. Because to make taxes work well, to some extent you have to make them a little more complicated.
Then NPR moved Thorndike over to attacking the Rick Perry proposal:
HORSLEY: By doing away with those investment taxes, Perry would give a big windfall to the wealthiest Americans. Thorndike notes Ronald Reagan went the opposite direction, taxing earnings from capital at the same rate as ordinary income.
THORNDIKE: I mean, Ronald Reagan, when he was trying to sell his tax reform plan, you know, he said this is going to be fair, because the rich people are going to pay at the same rate as the bus driver. And that issue about the taxation of capital gains was at the heart of the bargain. And we're nowhere near that kind of a bargain now.
Then NPR turned to Bruce Bartlett, who used to be a Reaganite and now whacks Republicans from the left, as sort of the Kevin Phillips turncoat of the new century:
HORSLEY: Bruce Bartlett was a policy advisor in the Reagan White House and the author of a forthcoming book on taxes called "The Benefit and the Burden." He says the idea behind today's progressive tax code, in which the wealthy are taxed at a higher rate, has lost ground since the 1980s.
BARTLETT: People have come to believe that it's OK for very rich people to pay virtually nothing. And they seem not to care when people like Herman Cain talk about massively raising taxes on the poor and the middle class. This is really quite astounding because there are certainly far more poor and middle class people in this country than there are rich people. But many people who would be worse off appear to support them.
HORSLEY: Thus far, Mitt Romney has steered clear of the flat tax bandwagon. Romney does want to do away with taxes on dividends and capital gains, but only for those making less than $200,000. And while he favors a simplified tax code, Romney says Cain's proposal goes too far.
MITT ROMNEY: I've had the experience in my life of taking on some tough problems. And I must admit that simple answers are always very helpful, but often times inadequate.
HORSLEY: Back in the 1990s, Romney denounced another flat tax proposal from publisher Steve Forbes as a tax cut for fat cats. Today, Forbes is advising Rick Perry. And Perry told CNBC he considers Romney to be a fat cat.
With three Republican challengers to Obama attacked, NPR could call it a morning well spent.
