Fear of taxes

Some of the conservative commentariat — Grover Norquist, for one — want us to believe that the current recession was caused by the fear that taxes might be raised.

Now, it’s true enough that fluctuations in stock prices often represent the effects of fear, rational or not, but fear of taxes didn’t cause the credit crisis. Fear of taxes didn’t cause banks to make unwise loans. Fear of taxes didn’t motivate consumers to go on an eight-year spending spree with borrowed money.

Anyone remember 1993? That's when President Clinton staved off recession partly by raising some taxes (on the wealthiest people on the country, to be clear). That made is possible to fund an economic stimulus without borrowing the money from China, which seems to be the only idea our present government and its tame commentators seem to have.

Even better: Norquist would like us to believe that President Franklin D. Roosevelt caused the Great Depression! Hey, Grover, the Depression started with the stock market crash in 1929. FDR was elected in 1932.

See David Sirota’s commentary for more.

If Norquist et al. think that President-elect Obama’s plan to raise taxes at just the highest income level will bring back the economic conditions of the Clinton administration, I hope they're right.