The op-ed page editor (who "knows" me from my stream of LTEs as part of the PA RRN team) tossed it over to the local/regional op-ed page editor who said she'd print it if I re-wrote it to focus on area infrastructure.
I suggested I'd prefer not to gut my piece to get them to print it. If they weren't interested I'd just publish it elsewhere and I knew just the place - here! So here goes...
Eisenhower Was Right, Reagan Was Wrong: It’s the Investment, Stupid!
When the Federal Highway Trust Fund was created in 1956, the top marginal tax rate was 91% on incomes over $400,000 (non-inflation adjusted). It was lowered to 71.25% in 1970 and held there until Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980. But by the end of his tenure, it had been slashed to 33%. Today it stands at 35% on incomes over $350,000 per year. 1
Is it any wonder that bridges are crumbling while funds for upkeep are dwindling? Unlike Barry Goldwater, the political father of modern conservatism, President Eisenhower understood the value of investing in America’s infrastructure. He was just fine with a top marginal tax rate of 91%; those most able to help invest in America’s future should make that "sacrifice" and all would reap the benefits. And lo and behold, we have.
Unfortunately, Ronald Reagan emulated Goldwater rather than Eisenhower, and that choice continues to haunt us today. The consequences of this choice, and the fallacy of the underlying ideology, that government is the problem not the solution and private capital markets are the best arbiter of investment decisions, are now all too clear.
The reality is that there is no competitive private market for investments of the scope required to maintain mass transit systems, bridges, highways, railroads, airports, water resources, waste treatment plants, water mains, and power grids. The philosophical refusal to provide sufficient investment in these critical underpinnings of America’s economy predictably reversed the decades of economic prosperity made possible by the wisdom of Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.
Of course, Pennsylvania’s nearly 6000 structurally deficient bridges are only the tip of the iceberg; (2) the reality is that two decades of chronic underinvestment out of the last three (the Clinton years did boost investment a bit) has contributed not only to rotting roads and bridges, but to an ever-dwindling manufacturing base. Investment income today is taxed at the lowest possible rate of 15% (what vision of America is it that values dividends more highly than work?) and executive income soars into the stratosphere relative to front-line worker pay, but (as documented in the recent Chicago Tribute article reprinted in Sunday’s Inquirer) the heart of our heartland, the middle class blue-collar worker, is sliding backward to the tune of 30, 40 sometimes 70%—and that’s when he or she can find a new job after their factory closes. (3)
While Republicans in Congress rail at the Democrats’ audacity to exact an additional $16 billion in taxes from the oil industry (4) at a time when poor Exxon is only generating $10 billion in net profits per quarter and collective oil industry investment in additional domestic refinery capacity is zip, zero, zilch—oops, sorry, capacity is actually down 9% since 1981 (5) (you wonder why gas prices are rising...), Americans are more than ready to shift our energy investment focus from fossil fuels to alternative energy.
Truth be told, Americans are by-and-large on-board with the consensus priorities of the progressive netroots (ably represented by attendees at last weekend’s YearlyKos convention in Chicago), who, contrary to the Associated Press’ characterization as "polarizing," (6) are engaging and enlightening the political establishment to what poll after poll reveals: Americans really do want a dramatic change from the catastrophic policies of the Bush era.
Americans do want universal health care (even if they don’t yet grasp the enormous financial benefits of a government single-payer, private-provider system), truly serious action on global warming, and above all, as quick an end to the occupation of Iraq as can be reasonably achieved.
For far too many years, Americans have been entranced by the conservative siren song of lower taxes. But as the reality of the complete and absolute failure of the conservative philosophy that government is bad (except when it’s intruding into your bedroom and building ever bigger bombs to drop on non-threatening countries) seeps inexorably into our daily lives, perhaps we can all regain the wisdom of President Eisenhower and make it OK to invest in our collective future.
(1) http://www.truthandpolitics.org/...
(2) http://www.philly.com/...
(3) http://www.chicagotribune.com/...
(4) http://www.philly.com/...
(5) http://www.nacsonline.com/...
(6) http://www.nacsonline.com/...