MediaWatch: October 1992

Vol. Six No. 10

Post's Deficit Solution

MORE TAXES

In late September, The Washington Post offered readers a three- part series on how the deficit grew dramatically in the last decade. The cause cited by reporter Steven Mufson? While Congress had a role, it was mostly Reagan's tax cuts. Recalling how tax cuts were supposed to increase revenue, Mufson countered: "The idea was, in the words of Harvard University economics professor Benjamin Friedman, 'a fairy tale.'" Mufson argued that tax receipts fell in 1983, and in 1984 "barely crept back to the levels of 1982." But he failed to note that from 1984 to 1989 receipts grew an average of eight percent a year, almost twice the inflation rate, while spending mushroomed faster.

Mufson blamed voters for not electing liberals: "In presidential campaigns, voters have not rewarded candidates who spell out how they plan to cut the federal deficit....Walter Mondale, the losing candidate in 1984, told voters that he would combine spending cuts and tax increases to cut the deficit....While Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis stressed that more debt was accumulated under eight years of the Reagan presidency than during the first 200 years of American independence, George Bush rode to victory promising 'no new taxes.'"

Tax hikes were Mufson's solution: "Though the nation's fiscal imbalance has rarely reached such a critical point, the failure of lawmakers to impose taxes in an attempt to curry favor with voters is a problem as old as the republic." Leading into a final paragraph long quote from the first Treasury Secretary, Mufson wrote, "more than 200 years ago...Alexander Hamilton appealed for Americans to recognize the need for taxes. Two centuries later, the plea retains its note of urgency."