[PEN-L:3008] Re: New Economists' Petition

[Brad De Long <delong@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Brad De Long wrote:
>
>>But is that the alternative to debt reduction that we are faced with this
>>year? Tax cuts for the rich are even less to my taste...
>
>So given a world in which politics is reduced to choose between tax cuts
>for the rich and debt paydowns, you embrace the lesser evil rather than
>challenging the idiocy of such a forced choice itself. I guess that's how
>hegemony works, isn't it?
>
>Doug

We are faced with the "idiocy of such a forced choice" between "tax cuts
for the rich and debt paydowns" because the majority leader of the Senate
is named Lott and not Daschle, because the majority leader of the House is
named Armey and not Bonior.

The most effective way to challenge this state of affairs is to elect
senators and representatives who will vote for Daschle and Bonior when the
Senate and House organize themselves in January 2001.

Saying that debt paydown is not the first-best option is fine. But in so
saying, please don't do anything to make people think that the
Rubin-Sperling budget proposals are worse than tax cuts for the rich. If
you fail to preserve the distinctions between things that are bad and
things that are not very good, you aren't "challenging the idiocy of such a
forced choice"--you are working for the greater evil.


Brad DeLong