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June 15, 2003

Max and I Agree: Delay Tax Bill is Better

What a world.

Max makes the argument that the House tax credit bill is more fiscally honest than the Senate bill, since Delay doesn't bother with the silly, dishonest "sunset" provisions that allow the Senate to claim a small tax cut, while ignoring the likelihood of far greater deficits if the tax credit is extended.

Mas is right. Delay is right.

But I support Delay's version for more cynical reasons. In a year or two, when the major tax provisions start being sunsetted, there will be another big tax bill to make all the provisions permanent.

If the Delay bill gets passed, they won't be able to include the child tax credit as a provision of that bill, since it will already be permanent. And what that means is that the bill presented will be that much more skewed towards the wealthy, since the child tax credit is the only part of Bush's tax cuts that have helped working families.

Without the bait of the child tax credit, making the rest of the tax giveaways to the rich will be almost impossible to sell to the public.

So Democrats should happily endorse Delay's bill. It's the best way to make sure the rest of the tax cuts aren't permanent.

Posted by Nathan at June 15, 2003 05:13 PM