There has been a lot of talk from the Democratic Presidential hopefuls so far in this campaign about how to handle Bush's tax cuts. It has become painfully clear that the cuts are currently lifting the deficit so far into the red that its becoming purple, and it is going to keep growing as more cuts continue to take effect. So, any rational person recognizes that these cuts have to go. The problem is that Bush's strategists have set the Democrats up for a no-win situation. The Republicans have set up the next campaign with a ready-made slogan: Democrats want to raise your taxes. It is true. Democrats will raise your taxes when they take office in 2005, and for a noble reason; saving the country from a fiscal meltdown.
However, the Democrats still have to watch out for the trap that has been set for them. The current front-runner, Howard Dean says he is going to rescind all of Bush's tax cuts, including those on the middle class. He says that this has to be done if we, as a country, seriously expect to do something about the debilitating health care system that we have at the moment. That is certainly a compelling arguement, but one that is going to be met with one phrase by every media personality that interviews him from now until November: 'So, you're going to raise taxes.'
Other than Dick Gephardt, who is really in Dean's camp on this issue, most of the serious contenders are talking about getting rid of Bush's cuts for the wealthiest Americans, and allowing the middle-class to keep their cut. This actually could play into the Democrats' hands. As Paul Krugman puts it in the New York Times, those Democrats "who want to restore fiscal sanity probably need to frame their proposals in a way that neutralizes the administration's demagoguery."
The Democrats can easily neutralize this issue by ditching all of Bush's tax cuts except the ones that benefit the middle class. Americans realize that Bush is Corporate America's water boy. You don't have to run as a populist to beat Bush, you become a populist simply by running against his tax cuts for the insanely wealthy. This will become an extremely important issue in this campaign, as well it should be. There is not alot of talk about the balooning deficit right now, but it will intensify the closer we get to the election. So, Bush's tax cuts will certainly be in the discussion. Bush will never scale them back, he is too afraid of repeating his father's mistakes in '92. So, according to Krugman, only one question remains , "Will someone be able to find the political sweet spot, the combination of fiscal responsibility and electoral smarts that brings the looting to an end? The future of the nation depends on the answer."