Thursday, March 29, 2007

Federalism & Tax Cuts   [Jonah Goldberg]

I've got a few minutes here in the lobby of the JW Marriott, so I figured I'd chime in.  

I don't know the details of the Giuliani the tax-hiker argument well enough to comment just yet. But I thought I'd through a completely hypothetical and academic point into the mix, even if it's probably not perfectly relevant to Giuliani. No doubt because I am a selfish, heartless small-r republican, I think we should pay most of our taxes locally and the smallest share of them nationally. The federal government is supposed to be there to do a few very important things while, as I've long said, I'm much more sympathetic to communitarian even socialistic ideas at the local level, because people should be able to organize their communities as they see fit (and within the basic guidelines of civil rights etc). I personally would be very free market at the local level. But less so than I am at the national level. Anyway, my point is that being in favor of increased taxation at the local level doesn't necessarily mean one has to be a tax-hiker at the national level.

Now, the problem, as I've already conceded, is that this is a much more academic point than I wish it was. The tendency is that people who are free-market are free-marketers at the local level too. And people who are statists are statists all the way down. This holds true for all sorts of issues like abortion, gay rights etc. I wish this were otherwise. But, alas, my wishes tend to determine very little. 

Still, I think if Giuliani is going  to win over social conservatives he's going to have to master this sort of argument more than others. He needs to explain why what's good for New York isn't necessarily good for Montana or Georgia and how he understands and respects that. 

03/29 11:50 AMShare