One of Washington’s most enduring policy dialectics is alive and well as Democrats and Republicans court midterm-electionvotersin the face of mystifyingly weak job marketand threatening budget deficit.

Yet, for all of the political noise about the Reagan or Bush tax cuts, or the Clinton or Obama tax hikes, it may be hard to make a convincing case for either approach..

“I really don’t think you can,” says Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic And Policy Analysis. “It’s really marginal.”

Baker’s analysis is rare for its candor and neutrality about a policy debate where cause and effect is usually one-sided and often over-simplified. Most participants can't recommend one school of thought without castigating the other.