Republicans and conservative operatives have become obsessed with the idea that wealthy liberals should prove their largesse not by making public arguments for higher taxes on people like themselves but by donating money to the U.S. Treasury.
This is the fiscal equivalent of the old critique that environmentalists should just buy hybrid cars and never fly anywhere instead of fighting for laws meant to combat climate change. It’s silly, but it’s combustible, and it exploded on Twitter and elsewhere after an Obama supporter in California this week asked the President to raise his taxes.
Anti-tax warrior Grover Norquist has turned this talking point into world class snark.
In an open letter to Warren Buffett — one of the most influential wealthy Americans to argue deficits should be reduced by raising taxes on people like him — Norquist tells him to pipe down and just cut the government a check.
You have mentioned in passing that you feel unhappy that you do not pay enough money to the government each year in taxes.
“As it turns out, you don’t need to wait for President Obama to sign legislation raising taxes on you,” Norquist writes. “You can open up your checkbook right now, write a check payable to the United States Treasury, and drop it in the nearest mailbox (or just hand it to your “secretary”).” The quotations around “secretary” are meant to highlight (or perhaps mock) Buffett’s public complaint that his middle-income employees pay a higher effective tax rate than him — a fact that’s driven liberals, including Obama, to highlight the disparity between the billionaire and his secretary.
“Once you’ve sent the check, I would be glad to help spread the word. The many others who believe the government can spend their money better than they can will be inspired by your example,” Norquist writes. “As a convenience to you, I’ve enclosed an envelope pre-addressed to the U.S. Treasury. You’ll have to take care of the stamp yourself, however.”
Norquist is correct — Buffett can donate money to the Treasury. But Buffett and others like him aren’t asking for their taxes to be raised because they have a deeply ingrained yearning to give the government more of their money. Rather, they understand rightly that disputes about budget deficits — taxes, revenue, and borrowing — aren’t ultimately about liberty or accounting, but rather about what role taxpayers think the government should play in society (should it provide retirement programs for the elderly?) and, based on that, where to get the money to pay for it from.
It’s a collective action issue — to maintain programs like Social Security and Medicare over time, taxes have to go up broadly. It’s a collective action issue, not something Buffett can take care of by cutting a check.
Norquist hates popular government programs, and so his recourse has been to separate in peoples minds the relationship between taxes and government services, so that the Treasury runs out of money and credit and has no choice but to jettison most of them.
