The Star-Ledger: Sticking to the Republican playbook
media mentionBy Star-Ledger Editorial Board
on February 15, 2013 at 6:30 AM, updated February 15, 2013 at 10:58 AM
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (left) with then-Ohio gubernatorial candidate John Kasich as they sit at a lunch counter during a live webcast Q&A session at a campaign stop for Kasich outside Cincinnati. Andrew Mills/The Star-Ledger
The Republican Party’s message needs an update. Since November’s drubbing, party leaders admit it. But don’t expect the GOP to give up its go-to move: tax cuts for the rich.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich is the latest to dip into the right’s feel-good wishing well. He’s calling for 20 percent income tax cuts, across the board. But he’ll replace the money by extending the state’s sales tax to hundreds of new goods and services — a regressive tax hike on poor and middle-class taxpayers.
Kasich is mimicking Republican governors in Louisiana, Kansas, North Carolina, Nebraska and Indiana. Each proposes income tax cuts — in some cases, eliminating the tax — and simultaneous increases on taxes that hurt the less wealthy.
Gov. Chris Christie spent time in this camp. He opened 2012 by proposing a 10 percent income tax cut for all. He wouldn’t raise other taxes — he made a strict no-new-taxes promise. Instead, he counted on a “Jersey Comeback” that never materialized.
America’s poor already pays nearly twice the state and local tax rates the wealthy do, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found. Crunching state, local, property and sales taxes, the bottom 20 percent pays an effective tax rate of 11.1 percent. The middle class pays 9.4 percent; the wealthy, 5.6 percent.
Why? The institute blames the lack of progressive income taxes and over-reliance on sales taxes. Sound familiar?
Under Kasich’s plan, the rich save $10,000 a year. The bottom 60 percent, instead, pay more. The trickle-down temptation that Republicans cannot resist, despite its failed history.
Mitt Romney followed this path to defeat. Christie, wisely, abandoned it when faced with high unemployment and low tax revenues. For Republicans hunting political points, it’s a sure bet.
Sometimes, tax cuts are appropriate. Other times, like today, they’re not.