Missing the Point. Again.

The Washington Post has told us not to worry. You see, Bush & Co. have abandoned further tax cuts in favor of tax reform. So the deficit at least won't get any bigger.

These people are just tools. First, they neglect to mention that the old tax cuts that Bush intends to remain in place are the primary cause for the deficit (and, by the way, are also the chief threat to Social Security revenues). What we have now is a structural deficit, where expenditures permanently exceed revenues. The Republicans have already demonstrated that they don't have the political will to cut spending enough to balance the budget, so we will continue to pile up trillions of debt. It would be helpful if the Post mentioned why were are in this fix in the first place, and that only by undoing the Bush tax cuts can we start to make any headway in repairing the damage.

Secondly, the move to "tax reform" is far less innocuous that it sounds. The entire agenda of the right is to shift income from the bottom to the top, and to shift the tax burden from the top to the bottom. What we have is a reverse Robin Hood tax policy. A national consumption tax or flat tax (either of the straightforward or underhanded variety) will dramatically increase taxes on the middle and working classes and cut them for the very rich. This is what Republicans mean by tax "reform." It is in fact what they mean by any kind of reform. In the Republican Dictionary, the entry for "reform" should be: and policy change that screws working people for the benefit of the wealthy.

So when the Post suggests that the Republicans are turning the corner on fiscal discipline, or not to worry about tax reform, do what I do whenever Dick Cheney comes on TV: change the channel.