I want to talk today about something that will become a bigger and bigger issue over
the next couple of years when it comes to the things that Joe Biden and Democrats want
to do and the fact that there will be resistance from the Republican Party, that's not like
the typical resistance we've seen in the past from more traditional Republicans, but a more
sort of pernicious and extreme resistance, which completely poisons the well for people
that want to have good faith debates about what policy should be.
And I think the best way to sort of explain what I'm talking about is to imagine it through
the lens of one issue.
Let's pick pick the issue of taxes to discuss this just for the sake of selecting something.
There is no one right answer on what tax rates should be and what tax brackets should be
and what should be tax deductions versus tax credits versus nothing at all.
These are real topics over which there is serious debate.
There's a lot of academic literature, for example, which suggests the top marginal tax
rate for generating the most government revenue should be 70 percent.
But beyond that, it can start to be a disincentive for people to work.
But even if you agree on 70 percent, what level of income should that rate kick in?
Should it be two million dollars a year or 10 or 20 million dollars a year?
There are really good debates there that that's not there's not one answer to that question.
There are real debates as to whether lower no income tax states are really cheaper to
live in or in a state with no income tax.
Are you saving on income tax?
But there's higher sales tax on average and higher property tax on average.
So, like, is a no income tax state really cheaper overall or is it just an illusion
meant to attract people with a political statement?
We have no state income tax when you pay more in other types of taxes.
OK, that's a great thing to explore.
We can debate whether people should pay any taxes at all if they earn under ten thousand
dollars a year or twenty thousand dollars a year or thirty thousand dollars a year,
or should they get a tax credit versus a low tax rate, or where should phaseouts begin
for certain programs, welfare programs or tax credits or whatever?
What about universal basic income?
There are good debates being had there and all of these are debates that can be had in
good faith with people who disagree about the answer.
Like I have an opinion about all of those issues and I recognize there are people with
other opinions who are discussing these issues in good faith.
They're operating within the realm of what's reasonable.
They have valid points to make and these are the people we need to engage with.
The problem here is when extremists poison the well by introducing ideas that, aside
from making no sense, are never going to be a reality.
So like when you interject the people who say all taxes are theft or all taxes are slavery
as a starting point or all taxes should be abolished as a starting point, this is the
United States.
This is a country of three hundred and thirty one million people.
We're not getting rid of all taxes.
The idea of taxes is slavery is not going to push the debate forward as to what tax
policy should be or people who say, you know, we should put a 99 percent tax on incomes
over a million dollars.
No one should be allowed to make over a million dollars.
It's not going to happen, guys.
We're getting nowhere with that is the starting point.
And I'm going to distinguish in a moment extremis poisoning the well versus productive stretching
of the Overton Window.
These are two different things.
So the people who say, you know, these things, they are often asserting that we should include
these ideas because we don't want to suppress speech and we don't want to censor ideas.
I agree with that.
But as I've said before, not every harebrained idea deserves a seat at the adult table when
we're discussing policy.
So we often talk about moving the Overton Window, for example.
The more we talk about Medicare for all is the gold standard, the more a public option
seems to be a centrist idea, which it is.
The more we talk about two thousand dollars per month in coronavirus stimulus, the more
that a single two thousand dollar payment seems like a pretty centrist idea, which it
is.
And so we want to use the Overton Window to better our negotiating ability.
But taxes are slavery doesn't improve anyone's negotiating ability.
It's just a crazy idea.
And this is how these new extremists in the House of Representatives are going to be poisoning
the well, not necessarily on taxes, but this is the idea of it and making it impossible
for Democrats to do anything which they've admitted they plan to do.
So as a result, as we spoke about yesterday, I'm completely on.
Board with what we learned Bernie Sanders plans to do, and that's used budget reconciliation
to get as much done as possible in the Senate with a simple majority rather than requiring
60 votes, meaning they don't need a single Republican.
Assuming that all 50 Democrats are on the same page, there unfortunately is no other
way with people who are fundamentally bad faith actors.
Now, I'm willing to have my mind changed, but what good will the idea of bipartisanship
do when it just means allowing completely ridiculous ideas to be part of the conversation
and completely absurd people to slow down the possibility of progress?
So there's the debate about the filibuster that continues.
There's the idea of unity and bipartisanship that Joe Biden has expressed as a goal.
As I've said before, I don't think it's going to happen.
And this is exactly why these extremist ideas poison the well.
And we're seeing it happen already on Fox News.
We're seeing it on OMON, we're seeing it on Newsmax.
And I believe that while I am willing to have my mind changed, the idea of bipartisanship,
merely if that means allowing ridiculous radical reactionary ideas into the debate does nothing
good for anybody.
And Democrats should simply plow through it for these next at least two years during which
they will have control of the House, Senate and the White House.
If you disagree with me, let me know