Whither the Conservative Movement? pg. 11

used it as a shorthand tag to refer to the glory yeas of Reagan. In GW Bush’s speeches, it seems like an earnest view of government as having no honest power of taxation in its own right. From this view, taxation is simply taking money from people and using it. It is the first step in a view of a Robin Hood government that takes from those who have and gives to those who have not.

However, when the President makes formal speeches, this tag is missing. Rather, taxation is mentioned only within an economic groundwork. There is a shifting ground of economic problems that call for tax cuts to stimulate the economy, but all problems come back to cutting taxes to stimulate the economy (GW Bush, 2003a, quote V.D.1; GW Bush, 2003b, quote V.E.2; GW Bush, 2003c, quote V.F.1, V.F.2; GW Bush, 2003d, quote V.G.1). Sometimes, it doesn’t appear to matter which taxes are being targeted, it only matters that taxes are cut to help the economy (GW Bush, 2003b, quote V.E.1; GW Bush, 2003d, quote V.G.1).

Because this lacks any ideological basis, it is addictive. Since economic indicators vary independently, there is always room to label one as being weak. If there is no need to connect specific tax cuts to specific economic weaknesses, then any tax cut will become the answer to any economic weakness. If all tax cuts make the economy grow, then cutting taxes is always the right thing to do. If temporary tax cuts made the economy grow, this logical chain dictates that the cuts be made permanent and/or are extended (GW Bush, 2003a, quote V.D.2; GW Bush, 2004, quote V.H.1, V.H.2, V.H.3).

This is in direct contrast to the ideology of Reagan and Goldwater who saw a genuine benefit for taxation. Rather than seeking out a fairer system or to close down loopholes, this economic ideology simply sees no downside to lower taxes. As such, no mention is

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