Photo

Who rules the American right? I fairly often find myself talking with people who see either the nation as a whole or at least the right side of the political spectrum as a pure oligarchy, where the big money controls everything. And money definitely plays an outsized and generally malign role in policy. Usually, however, it’s only the root of some evil, not all evil: the vileness of a Roy Moore or Joe Arpaio comes from very different sources,

But one area where the simplistic view is close to correct is tax policy. There really is no clamor, even among Republicans, for tax cuts on the wealthy and corporations. And overall public opinion is strongly against.

Nor is there a technocratic case for these cuts. There is no evidence whatsoever that tax cuts produce great economic outcomes — zero, zilch, nada. The “experts” who claim otherwise are all hired guns, and notably incompetent hired guns at that.

Yet faith in and demands for tax cuts remains; it’s the ultimate zombie idea. And it’s obvious why: advocating tax cuts for the rich and inventing rationales for those cuts is very lucrative.