My copy of the Fabian Review came through. Iain Dale and Mark Oaten are opposite each other, smiling nervously as if wondering if smiling at browsing Lefties is a seat-losing offence.
ID warns the reader not to be complacent, because his man Cameron is poised to bounce off the ropes and swing at "control freak short-termist" Brown. He urges more courage to the Conservatives, especially on lower taxes, which "ought to mean picking off Labour voters like ripe plums". Then we get
Anyone with half an economic brain can make the case that lower taxes means a higher tax take and therefore more money to invest in public services.
It makes you wonder what you think if you have the full brain working. We all know about the Laffer curve, but it seems that only Mr Dale and George W Bush of circa 1999 actually think we are at that part of it, or that it is a coherent curve at all. From the wikipedia link:
"In 2005, the Congressional Budget Office released a paper called "Analyzing the Economic and Budgetary Effects of a 10 Percent Cut in Income Tax Rates"that casts doubt on the idea that tax cuts ultimately improve the government's fiscal situation"
Still, you never know where you might get if you just semi-lobotomise yourself. Again, the impression is overwhelming that the preaching to the converted is going full-swing; all the furious thought of the blogosphere has not attuned their prophets to the messages needed to convince the floating voter.
2 comments:
It depends on whether you're talking about the long or short term. Whether tax cuts boost growth enough to replace revenue is moot, but they are an a-priori good thing, because they do boost growth.
Sure, though whether this is over a timescale that can benefit Tories in the straightforward way ID indicates is a certainly moot. The irony is, Thatcherite decisions probably did more to boost the revenues of Brown than Major.
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