Haymarket Books

I will begin by noting how corporations and the rich used their rising profits and their falling tax burdens to shape politics. As they altered the tax system to their advantage, they worked hard to define “the tax issue” politically as having nothing to do with shifting burdens from one social group to another. Politicians and politically motivated think tanks inundated public discourse with affirmations that all taxes were excessive burdens that sustained wasteful bureaucrats.

Most Republicans preferred tax cuts for business and the rich (versus average citizens) more than most Democrats, and most Republicans preferred cutting government employment and social welfare services more than most Democrats. But both agreed on far more than they disagreed on.

government spread the ideological message that the socialization or nationalization of banking had not happened, that banks unable to function without massive government supports were nonetheless still “private enterprises.” The government’s supports were always referred to as “temporary,” although no one could know how long each of them might be continued or whether and when they might need to be resumed.