President Bush and Republican Senate and House candidates are talking more about taxes in speeches, debates and TV spots after polls showed it is the Republican Party’s best issue in a tough midterm election season.
“One of the most important issues on the ballot this November is taxes,” Mr. Bush said this week in stumping in Georgia for former Rep. Mac Collins, seeking to unseat Rep. Jim Marshall, the incumbent Democrat. “There is a fundamental difference between the Republican and Democratic parties on this important issue.”
After being off the campaign radar for months, the tax issue is now turning up in races from Virginia to Minnesota, with a little recent help from Democrats.
Republicans grinned from ear to ear last month when the ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, New York Rep. Charles B. Rangel, just about guaranteed tax increases if his party takes over the House after Nov. 7. Asked whether Democrats would consider raising taxes across the whole spectrum of income, Mr. Rangel said, “No question about it.”
Some Republicans say Mr. Rangel and his party will soon regret those words.
“Republican tax cuts have removed lots of low-income Americans from the tax rolls, so is Charlie Rangel telling those low-income folks if he and the Democrats take over, they’ll put those folks back on the tax rolls?” said American Conservative Union Chairman David A. Keene. “So is he saying his supposed constituency will get to pay taxes again?”
I think a lot of people are underestimating just how powerful a message this tax stuff is.
Think about it. The case Democrats are making in this election is premised on corruption (DeLay, Ney, Foley, etc.) and the war in Iraq/national security, but while many Americans care deeply about those issues neither impacts them as profoundly in their day-to-day lives as tax policy does.
I think most Americans are, for better or worse, more worried about their paychecks and their yearly bottom line then they are about the NSA monitoring phone calls or what is going on in the middle east. The Democrats have come right out and said that they’re going to raise taxes if they get into office. I think Republicans need to counter that by pointing out that they’ve been cutting taxes, which in turn has sparked incessant growth in our economy and shrinking deficits in our national budget. But most importantly of all, Republicans need to tell Americans that if Democrats get into office all of our take-home paychecks are going to be significantly smaller.
If that message can be effectively delivered to voters the Democrats aren’t going to see much gain come November.