Mark,

Liberals are people who believe the government can make better use of your money than you can. 

The tax code becomes an instrument of social policy and income redistribution.   Productive people can work harder so that others can be motivated to sit on their duffs, receive transfer payments, and vote Democrat.

Liberals do have a conscience. "A Liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which he proposes to pay with your money" 

Mr. Chait, please make your tax records for the past 15 years available for all to see.  I'm so tired of hearing these libs do such crazy speech, but never having to prove anything.  I would suspect that his tax records would give us a greater insight into what he feels about the lower taxes, the tax laws in general, his shelters, his donations, etc.  If you want to be in the spotlight, then let everything be known about you! 

Granted, economic growth sometimes causes revenues to rise faster than
expected after a tax cut, as has happened since the 2003 tax cut.

But that was just a fluke, right?

Folks like Chait refuse to believe that taxes alter behavior. They think you figure out which "thing"...be it an activity, item, or behavior, is widely popular and prevalent, and tax the hell out of it. Then you expect that people will continue to engage in that activity, or buy that item, or persist in that behavior at the same level, even though it costs more.

Granted, economic growth sometimes causes revenues to rise faster than
expected after a tax cut, as has happened since the 2003 tax cut.

And in '94 when the Republican congress cut taxes.  And in 1980 when Reagan cut taxes.  And in the 60's when Kennedy cut taxes. 

I think I see a trend here, but why let the facts get in the way with a perfect piece of...propaganda.

• If you have five businesses, and each pays a million in taxes, you wind up with five million. How to increase revenue? You either ask for more from the existing five, or you attract more businesses. Lowering the tax rate is what attracts new businesses. You make up in payers what you trade off in rate. That’s not insane; it’s a theory that works in practice. But there’s more to it than simply the revenue.

  • More businesses have collateral benefits that pay off down the line, such as more jobs, and more competitors create pressure to improve productivity, and so on.

  • On the other hand, increasing tax rates has the opposite effect, with no collateral benefits.

• The government is roughly one fifth of the American economy, but it works in contrast to the other four fifths. Taxes may boost the short term revenue of the government, but that revenue comes at the expense of the other sectors. If you’re looking at the health of the economy overall, does it make sense to measure the health of 20% at the expense of the 80%?

  • It only makes sense when you belong to governing class.

• The reason we want to collect the maximum taxes, at the moment, is that we’re currently in debt. However, the long term answer to higher debt isn’t more taxes, it’s addressing the debt drivers: spending and entitlements.

Why not a, say $5 tax per music CD and DVD movie?  Let's hear the hollywood libs and dems talk that one down.  This tax could raise a bundle for congress to squander.

Excuse me, Mr. Cheat...uh, Chait. Is it that you think your taxes are too low, or that my taxes are too low? If you think you don't pay enough taxes, the United States Treasury will accept a check from you over and above the taxes you owe. If you think your taxes are too low, I'll tell you what: write a check to the government that will leave you just above poverty. That way, you can assuage your liberal guilt.

In the meantime, Mr. Liberal Genius, if you don't think lower tax rates means increased tax revenues, how much money do you think the federal government would collect if the tax rates were 100%? In your alternative universe that would yield the maximum in tax revenues, correct? Time after time, experience has shown that lower tax rates stimulates economic activity, which leads to higher tax revenues. But, hey, we don't want to let any facts get in the way of your liberal, marxist theory, now do we?

Laffer was correct. If the tax rate is 0%, the revenues would be 0. Similarly, if the tax rate is 100%, the revenues will be zero. The rate that maximizes revenue is somewhere in between the two extremes. Chait is a fool.

"A communist is someone who reads Marx. An anti-communist is someone who understands Marx." Ronald Reagan

This is an example of true modern day liberal thinking.  People like Chait do not like confusing issues with facts.  I'm continually astounded at how easy it is for left wing nuts to completely ignore reality and draw conclusions which are actually in direct contradiction to that reality.  We have had record receipts to the Treasury for some time now.  The federal deficit is coming down despite massive spending increases by our government.  How does Chait explain this?  Of course, he doesn't.  Liberals never have to truly explain themselves, because they are never challenged to do so.  The mainstream media will not question this idiocy and libs like Chait have a knack for making sure they are never exposed to an unfriendly audience which may question their logic.

This is not a direct tax response but it goes to show our government in action with our money.

Right now the government subsidises the ethanol producing industry with our taxes. This is making the price of corn rise and everything that consumes corn gets more expensive as well. Cattle feed, sweetners, cosmetics and on and on. So we pay more for food and other products, which is like another tax. So we are paying at both ends because they think it's a great idea to shove ethanol at us. Which of course gets 20% less fuel economy than plain old gasoline. It's our governement at work with their solution. We pay, they get to feel good that they are doing something.

I really believe some of our elected reprensentatives have a pretty narrow band of intelligence.

If you hate lower taxes, then by all means...you and the rest of your liberal pals feel free to pay more taxes...pay a lot more...let's say you pay and your pals pay 50%. Still think higher taxes are a good idea?

Think of this as the altruistic voluntary tax hike...pay more taxes if you like, just leave me out of it. Here's a novel idea for you liberals...put you money where your mouth is.

If conservatives are RIGHT, then liberals must be WRONG.
Thompson/Rice