by David Safier
The reason many people accept conservative claims about taxation and government is that they hold up for many common experiences, especially when conservatives are in control of the government. Conservative officials enact policies that make life worse for people while claiming that things will get better. Then they draw upon these negative experiences to advance their agenda. No Child Left Behind is an excellent example. The strategy works like this (a more detailed analysis can be found here):
1. Declare that the agenda is to "improve" public education.
2. Pass legislation that cripples public schools.
3. Cry out for "reform" when people see how bad our schools are doing.
4. Get rid of public schools and replace them with private schools, especially schools that teach conservative ideology (e.g. elite charter schools, religious schools, etc.).
"tax relief" and "tax cuts" are just code words for destroying the capacity of government to serve the public.
David,
Are you following the attempt to audit the Rio Nuevo TIF money paid to the UofA by the City? $3477 paid for two trips to Pisa,Italy. $127.98 to Sullivan’s steak house and it goes on and on. When Hein refused Tucson finance director Frank Abeyta the right to audit Abeyta quit. Hundreds of thousands of dollars without proper receipts. Sounds like Tucson Unified School District but on a larger scale. What we need is a Grand Jury Investigation.
I’m no expert on conservative ideology or methods, but sometimes I think we’re over-thinking the issue. Perhaps Hanlon’s Razor applies?
“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor
Further on the Luck Ducky argument
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E0DD163BF930A35751C1A9649C8B63
The following Krugman article basically outlines what the conservative agenda(s) have been with taxes.
http://www.pkarchive.org/economy/TaxCutCon.html
I think the Lucky Duckies part is particularly interesting.