Jared Bernstein is senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. He is the author of All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy, (Berrett-Koehler, 2006). David Kusnet was chief speechwriter for former President Bill Clinton. He is writing a book about workplace conflicts in today’s America, Love the Work, Hate the Job, for John A. Wiley and Sons.
Although Thanksgiving and the midterms elections are behind us, Christmas is coming and ’08 debates are underway.
Which means you may soon find yourself debating a conservative about economics. It may be at a neighborhood or family gathering, on a college campus, or at a city council hearing about a living wage ordinance.
If your conservative opponent takes a lesson from the right-wing talking heads on the shout shows, you’re in for a surprise. Take it from us—veterans of too many of the shows you should only watch if you’ve had your blood pressure checked beforehand. No matter what the subject, these folks have only four arguments:
#1: “That’s a tax increase.”
If you say you want to repeal any tax break for any special interest anywhere—even if it’s a subsidy for billionaire Belgian endive growers—you’re going to hear: “That’s a tax increase. The American people don’t want a tax increase. It will kill the recovery.” This argument implies that every tax break is forever. By establishing that repealing a tax cut is the same as a tax increase, it’s checkmate for anyone who wants to let the Bush cuts fade into the sunset.
You might respond by saying you don’t want middle-class families to pay a penny more in taxes, just to close a loophole for “the wealthiest 1 percent of the population.” This will lead your opponent to their second shouting-point:
#2: “That’s class warfare.”
To a right-wing pundit, there’s no difference between Theodore Roosevelt’s progressive tax system and the Bolsheviks storming the Winter Palace at Petrograd.
Given the choice, they’d rather cut taxes on investors than on janitors. But, to hear them tell it, their preferred policies aren’t class warfare—they’re common sense. Tax cuts for poor people are just another form of dependency-creating welfare—unlike tax cuts for rich people, which spur investment and growth.
If the debate veers towards trade deals or the off-shoring of American jobs, that’s the opening for the third shouting-point:
#3: “That’s protectionism.”
If you dare to suggest that any trade agreement is less than perfect—or that even one computer programmer or textile worker ever had their job moved overseas—get ready to be tagged as a “protectionist.”
To hear the conservatives tell it, globalization is always all good, it has no downsides, everybody’s better off, we love cheap stuff, and it’s the way to uplift the third world and spread democracy. Only a troglodyte (a fancy word for a protectionist) would feel otherwise.
#4: “The real problem is that, due to the failure of our public schools, many Americans don’t have the skills they need.”
Occasionally, in the spirit of faux bipartisanship, your opponent will admit that too many families’ incomes are stagnating and inequality is rising quickly. They’ll then assert that the real problem is: “Too many Americans lack the skills to compete and win in the global economy.” And the culprit is the public schools, which aren’t educating kids from low and moderate-income families.
Conservatives love this argument. It twists the problem around, making it the fault of (a) the public sector, which wastes taxpayers’ money on a failed system, and (b) the losers themselves, who aren’t smart enough to take advantage of all the great opportunities staring them in the face.
As they cycle through this litany, what are some useful responses?
In fact, there’s little relationship between moderate tax hikes and economic outcomes. The great 1990s boom, a period of widely shared prosperity, occurred after President Clinton raised taxes on high-income tax payers. “Class warfare” has become the cry of the haves against ideas to boost the living standards of the have-nots. Given the extreme skewing of wealth over this recovery, not to mention the inconvenient results of the midterms, the “American people” may well be in the mood for a bit more equality.
And speaking of the midterms, it’s worth pointing out that unless the benefits of trade begin to flow more broadly to the working class, the right’s agenda isn’t going anywhere. Finally, of course it’s true that any individual is better off with more schooling, but even college-educated workers are being hurt. Skills are critically important, but they no longer provide insulation against global winds of change.
It’s time for real discussion about how to make the economy work for the great majority of Americans—not to shut down, or shout down, the debate.
