MATT FONG TAX PROPOSAL: EFFECT ON NON-ELDERLY MARRIED COUPLES (20%) MAKING LESS THAN $28000 A YEAR (FEI CONCEPT): AVERAGE TAX INCREASE OF $1930
But this morning--thanks to the whispers of Max Sawicky in the Corridors of Power--I went down to the residential neigborhood of Glen Park in the southern half of San Francisco to help argue for a different set of reasons to return Boxer rather than Fong. I went to what I was told was a "typical San Francisco middle-class house," to be part of a Barbara Boxer campaign event: an attack on Matthew Fong's "flat tax" proposals.
MATT FONG TAX PROPOSAL: EFFECT ON NON-ELDERLY MARRIED COUPLES (20%) MAKING BETWEEN $28000 AND $49000 A YEAR (FEI CONCEPT): AVERAGE TAX INCREASE OF $1140
About ten aides, ten photographers, ten reporters, Senator Boxer, former Senator Bradley, California Comptroller Connell, a stray Fong aide, and me converge on this typical middle-class house--costing perhaps $300,000. It is located two blocks from each of two freeways, and hard to find because the freeways tend to carry you past it.
We are introduced to the charming preschool daughters, and to the homeowners: he's a lawyer, she's a psychotherapist. They've lived in the house for six years. "Since when are households where both partners have post-graduate degrees middle-class?" "Brad, the middle-class is anyone making less than $200,000 a year: make less than $200,000 a year, and you're a working family."
MATT FONG TAX PROPOSAL: EFFECT ON NON-ELDERLY MARRIED COUPLES (20%) MAKING BETWEEN $49000 AND $70000 A YEAR (FEI CONCEPT): AVERAGE TAX INCREASE OF $2450
Senator Boxer introduces the typical American middle-class homeowners. They say that they are just scraping by given their high mortgage and the high cost of living in San Francisco. "How big is the house?" "I don't know, maybe 1800 square feet." He goes on to say that the Fong plan would increase his taxes by $3000 a year, and that would make it very hard for them to live in San Francisco. "Who's he a lawyer for?" "He's a good guy: a HUD civil rights attorney."
MATT FONG TAX PROPOSAL: EFFECT ON NON-ELDERLY MARRIED COUPLES (20%) MAKING BETWEEN $70000 AND $100000 A YEAR (FEI CONCEPT): AVERAGE TAX INCREASE OF $3750
Senator Boxer introduces Senator Bradley. A photographer catches me chewing on my pen. Senator Bradley gives a nicely polished five-minute speech on the Earned Income Tax Credit, on how the Fong tax plan would eliminate it, and how this would be a very bad thing. Senator Boxer introduces Comptroller Connell. She says that the Fong plan raises taxes on the middle class. She says that this is not just the conclusion of left-wing think-tanks, but of the professional tax policy staff of California's equivalent of the IRS, the Franchise Tax Board.
MATT FONG TAX PROPOSAL: EFFECT ON NON-ELDERLY MARRIED COUPLES (15%) MAKING BETWEEN $100000 AND $193000 A YEAR (FEI CONCEPT): AVERAGE TAX INCREASE OF $3830
Senator Boxer introduces... me. I say that the Fong tax cannot both reduce taxes on the middle class and do what a flat tax is designed to do--deliver enormous tax reductions to the rich, and wipe out the federal government as an engine of income redistribution. I say that anyone who thinks that you can combine a flat tax with a middle-class tax cut thinks that 2+2=5. I say my job as an economist is to tell people that 2+2=4, not 5. That's why it's called the Dismal Science, after all.
MATT FONG TAX PROPOSAL: EFFECT ON NON-ELDERLY MARRIED COUPLES (4%) MAKING BETWEEN $193000 AND $445000 A YEAR (FEI CONCEPT): AVERAGE TAX DECREASE OF $10290
Senator Boxer doesn't introduce anyone. Senator Boxer talks about how she has fought for a strong economy, a low unemployment rate, a high rate of investment and productivity growth, and middle-class tax cuts for those working families who play by the rules. Senator Boxer talks about how Matt Fong seeks massive tax cuts for the rich, and is out of the mainstream of America. I think that Senator Bradley's egalitarian preferences are weaker than Senator Boxer's, but that her situation is somewhat desperate.
MATT FONG TAX PROPOSAL: EFFECT ON NON-ELDERLY MARRIED COUPLES (1%) MAKING MORE THAN $445000 A YEAR (FEI CONCEPT): AVERAGE TAX DECREASE OF $145610
Senator Boxer asks for questions. A reporter asks a question about the Reverend Sheldon, Matt Fong's $50,000 donation to the Reverend Sheldon, the Reverend Sheldon's plan to quarantine the HIV-infected, and Matt Fong's signing of a ultimatum presented to him by the Log Cabin Republicans. Senator Boxer answers the question well, and calls for questions about *tax policy*. A reporter asks a question about the Reverend Sheldon, Matt Fong's $50,000 donation to the Reverend Sheldon, the Reverend Sheldon's plan to quarantine the HIV-infected, and Matt Fong's signing of a ultimatum presented to him by the Log Cabin Republicans. Senator Boxer answers the question well, and calls for questions about *tax* *policy* *while* *she* *has* *all* *these* *experts* *here*. She praises Senator Bradley, who spent sixteen years on the Senate Finance committee and was the architect of the only true tax code simplification we have had since World War II.
A reporter asks a question about the Reverend Sheldon, Matt Fong's $50,000 donation to the Reverend Sheldon, the Reverend Sheldon's plan to quarantine the HIV-infected, and Matt Fong's signing of a ultimatum presented to him by the Log Cabin Republicans. Senator Boxer answers the question well, and calls for questions about *tax* *policy*.
The reporters are silent.
Senator Boxer thanks them for coming. The reporters and their photographers start to leave.
What does it say about American politics that the entire media finds proposals to massively shift the distribution of income toward the rich to be... boring? It's not that the corporate multinational masters of the media excise discussions of income distribution from articles. It's not that legions of paid supply-side snake-oil salesmen have brainwashed reporters into believing that every time you cut marginal tax rates you raise tax revenues.
It's just that your average reporter finds talk about who and how much government policy enriches... boring.
"The big things the federal government does are war and peace and taxing and spending," I said to the departing reporters. "Tax law changes and the shape of the budget are much more important. Senators move real money around, and buy real weapons. They only have a tangential effect on how tolerant American society is." "Of course you think tax law changes are important. You're an economist."
Senator Boxer, Senator Bradley, Comptroller Connell, and their aides get in their vans and start their drive to Sacramento, where they will repeat the performance in two hours in front of a different group of reporters and photographers.
Brad DeLong