Anti-Climacus

WELL: TruePravda asks, I attempt an answer:

"Do the Democrats actually think that there are a large number of Americans who would willingly pay more taxes?"

Short answer no, with a but; long answer yes, with an if.

No, most people are not willing to pay more in taxes, but they do enjoy the benefits of government programs and largesse.

Yes, many people would be willing to pay more taxes if they believe that money is going to some worthwhile cause. No one would object, presumably, to paying an extra dollar in taxes to raise the wage of a member of the military. No one (I hope) would object to paying a little more in taxes to make sure that all children can get the immunizations they need for free if they aren't covered by insurance. Presumably no one minds the money they pay to their state to pave the roads, and no one would mind a increase that would make the roads better (especially if you live in Michigan), so long as the average amount each person would have to pay marginally were reasonable.

The big problem Democrats often have is that they get stuck arguing on raising taxes in a vacuum. Ted Kennedy might think the world would be a better place if marginal income over $300,000 a year got taxed at 90%, but it's not because he thinks that rich, successful people should be screwed over just because they're rich and successful. It seems like a basic point of economics to me that the coercive taxation ability that government has allows for economies of scale that make certain things much, much more affordable (education being a fine example).

The counterargument is the Rosemary Nagle Game argument, which says basically that if you take it as a true psychological fact that people will always prefer a marginal tax cut to a marginal tax increase (in a circumstance where that tax increase doesn't go to one of the above-listed things), there will be a race to the bottom in terms of who can cut taxes the most. This is a fine pragmatic argument, and certainly it's dangerous on a pragmatic level for Democrats to oppose tax cuts, but taking this view also requires ignoring the normative element in the policy debate.