No New Tax Cuts

President George W. Bush is a tax-cutting, neoconservative automaton. His State of the Union Address last night, filled with trickle-down rhetoric so blindingly simplistic that even the most delinquent of Ec. 10 students could knock it down, confirmed this. What is a lot more disturbing, though, is how the Democrats fall for his predictable political ploys.

Over the last few years, the president has used the same basic political calculation to ram much of his conservative program down the throats of the American people. He starts with a radically conservative proposal—such as absurdly tough guidelines for military tribunals, lax labor protections in the new Department of Homeland Security and, his latest, abolishing dividend taxes. His far-right base sees him taking a principled stand.

But then President Bush backs down from his extreme position. Military tribunal guidelines get a little less tough and the power he has in the Department of Homeland Security gets a little less unchecked. He’s seen as a compromiser, getting things done on Capitol Hill. And his base isn’t displeased—what they get are policies that are still well right of center, just not as crazy. The tribunals, not law courts, are still there to try, and convict, the accused. And even after Democratic scrutiny, Tom Ridge’s new homeland security fiefdom is still decidedly anti-union.

Bush’s strategy of making an outrageous starting offer and only having to budge a little is playing out all over again with his proposal to eliminate dividend taxes. The president’s latest Reaganesque tax scheme has massive benefits for wealthiest Americans who own stock outside of tax-protected retirement funds. This proposal is so far out of step with mainstream public opinion that even Republican legislators are questioning how wise the president’s plan is. But, as the pattern predicts, the debate on Capitol Hill is not about whether cutting taxes makes any sense, but about how much money to drain away from the federal budget. The Democrats are once again playing into Bush’s hands, guaranteeing another tax cut in an awful, tax-slahingly right-of-center counter proposal.

Instead of a dividend cut, Democrats want to hand out another tax rebate. The idea is that middle-class married folks will get $600 a piece and go out and buy a new DVD player or a dinette set. This conservative rebuttal from the Democrats calls for the dispersal of billions of dollars to millions of people—to the minor benefit of the families getting the money and the great harm of the government handing it out. Here are 10 things the Democrats could propose if the money stayed in federal coffers:

1. Provide health care for the uninsured

2.Build and fund more inner-city schools and after-school programs

3. Pay down the federal deficit

4. Build public transportation networks in a few cities, like traffic-clogged Los Angeles

5. Feed and house America’s homeless

6. Solve the deepening Western water crisis

7. Give underpaid school teachers a raise

8. Put it in a Social Security Lockbox

9. Pay down state deficits

10. Find Osama bin Laden

Government can be a lot more than a check in the mail. Democrats need to remember this, stop playing Bush’s game and offer real opposition to Bush’s neoconservative tripe instead of just a toned-down version of the same poison policy.

—Stephen W. Stromberg is an associate editorial chair.