>From Paul Krugman´s book "Fuzzy Math: a Guide to George Bush´s Tax Plan" (y2000)
============ FIGHT THE FUTURE
One of the reasons conservatives want tax cuts is, of course, that they believe that lower taxes will lead to economic growth. But the conservative case for tax cuts goes deeper; it rests on political economy as well as simple economics.
A defining feature of the conservative agenda is the desire for "smaller government". Conservatives would like to see Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and maybe even Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal rolled back, and certainly would not like to see the United States become more of a welfare state, to become more like Sweden or Canada.
One way to promote smaller governments is directly: you oppose proposals for new social programs and try to cut existing programs. But you can also work toward that goal indirectly, by making sure that future politicians find it hard to pay for social programs".(...) "So, an important reason why conservatives want to cut taxes is that they want to keep the federal government hungry; they don't want money readily available to finance new programs, or even to maintain old ones. And some conservatives are playing an even deeper game: they believe that they can create a self-reinforcing cycle of government downsizing."
"Maybe the easiest way to understand this idea is to look at the contrast between politics in Canada and in the United States. Canada's government is much larger compared to the size of its economy compared to the United States: in 1997 government at all levels spent 42 percent of GDP in Canada and 32 percent in the United States. This means that taxes in Canada are considerably higher, and social programs are considerably more generous. Yet in the United States voters and politicians routinely complain about "Big Government" while in Canada they don't. In terms of politics, Canada is far more "Europe" than the United States.
Why is the political landscape south of the border so different? One answer has to be the great American distinction: race. Let's say it bluntly: in the United States the beneficiaries of social programs tend to be of a different color than the beneficiaries of tax cuts.
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