Repost: On Taxes, George W. Bush has won

From Ezra Klein at Wonkbook, Washington Post today:

"I wish they weren’t called the Bush tax cuts," the 43rd president said in remarks on Tuesday. "If they were called some other body's tax cuts, they're probably less likely to be raised."

Perhaps. But George W. Bush is selling himself short here. Most of his tax cuts are, at this point, an almost foregone conclusion. No one is talking about taking the 10% bracket and raising it back to 15%. No one is talking about raising the 25% bracket back to 28%, or the 28% bracket back to 31%, or the 33% bracket back to 36%. And not only do both parties support the expanded child tax credit, but Democrats have expanded it further. The bulk of the Bush tax cuts are now a bipartisan affair.

To put it differently, Democrats have, for the most part, admitted that Bush was right, and the Clinton-era tax rates were too high on most Americans. For all that Democrats talk about returning to the Clinton-era tax rates, they only ever mean for the top two percent of taxpayers -- the folks who are now in the 35% bracket, but whom they would like to see in a 39.6% bracket.

The reality is that, on tax policy, Democrats are now closer to Bush than to Clinton. But neither side much likes to admit that. For Democrats, it means confessing to how far right they've moved on taxes. And for Republicans, it means admitting how far right Democrats have moved on taxes.

Access the entire article here.