With Senate control at stake in two polls in Georgia next month, Republicans claim President-elect Joe Biden and Democrats are “socialists.” It is their shortcut for government interference in the economy, corruption, lawlessness, incompetence, and subsidizing people who should be supporting themselves.
Let me suggest four areas where the new Biden administration, allied with serious conservatives, can fight “socialism” while upholding progressive values.
► Eliminate farm subsidies and farm support programs (which will cost $ 46 billion this year – up from $ 22 billion last year – and account for about 40% of farm income this year) that interfere with agricultural markets. As Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute noted: “Agriculture is not riskier than other industries and does not need a range of federal subsidies.” Also from the Cato Institute: “About 97% of all farm households are wealthier than the median household in the United States. Farm income was 52% higher than the median US household income. ”
I don’t know of any progressive organization that supports these farm subsidy programs. However, American farmers are different from other Americans. They are 95% white and do one thing the majority of Americans refuse to do: Farmers vote with an overwhelming Republican majority (President Donald Trump may have won as much as 85% of the agricultural vote this year).
Tax subsidies that don’t make sense
► Eliminate the money-losing “socialist” national flood insurance program. From the perspective of progressives (who think climate change is a real and urgent concern), the PNIF makes no sense. It encourages living in flood-prone areas (where progressives believe flooding will get worse due to climate change) by offering federal subsidized flood insurance. As the General Accounting Office noted: “The NFIP premiums do not reflect the full risk of loss, which increases the federal tax exposure created by the program, obscures this exposure from Congress and taxpayers …”
In 2017, Congress wrote off $ 16 billion in losses from this program. But by March 2020, he had already racked up an additional $ 20 billion in losses. About 60% of NFIP policies have been issued in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas, all of which voted for Trump this year.
► Invest $ 10 billion per year to fund IRS tax enforcement, targeting the richest – those who make more than $ 1 million per year. According to a recent estimate by former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, University of Pennsylvania law professor Natasha Sarin and former IRS Commissioner Charles O. Rossotti, this investment would bring in about $ 100 billion per year in additional federal tax revenue.
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If you are a conservative who thinks postponing police enforcement is a bad idea, you should think the same about the recent postponement of IRS tax enforcement (by cutting the budget for l ‘IRS). The IRS budget shrank 20% in real terms from 2010 to 2019, while over the same period, the U.S. economy grew by about 25%. The result is that the number of audits of Americans earning over $ 1 million per year has declined by about 75%. At the same time, the IRS has been pressured to focus its meager resources on auditing low-income Americans. In particular, the main driver of this IRS defunding is the GOP.
► Ensure that states regularly subsidized by the rest of the country get their act together. Most states in the United States are roughly in balance between what their residents pay the federal government and what they receive in return. A few (mostly Democratic) states are “manufacturer” states (including Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York) that pay much more to the federal government than they receive.
The “taker” states do a bad job for the citizens
Then there are states that collect much more than what their residents pay in taxes. These “taker” states are predominantly low-income southeastern states, most dominated by Republicans. With our progressive tax system and our safety net, federal money tends to flow automatically to those states.
If you are a curator, moving money from “makers” to “takers” is generally frowned upon. If you’re a progressive, it makes sense to ask tough questions about what’s going on with these “taker” states. Because, despite all the money these states receive, they are not doing a good job for their citizens.
Mississippi illustrates how serious this situation is. Each year, Mississippi receives $ 19 billion more from the federal government than it puts into the system. Despite this support, Mississippi has the highest homicide rate, the highest infant mortality rates, and the lowest median household income of any U.S. state.
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It’s time for the leaders of these mismanaged states to make changes to improve the lives of their citizens – hopefully, while reducing their hefty allocation from the rest of the country. If they do not want to reform, perhaps the federal money and programs should be cut.
Part of what I am proposing will require legislation, and the devil is in the details. But if you are an ideological conservative, you should be prepared to work with the Biden administration to implement some or all of these proposals.
If you’re a hypocritical member of the GOP (i.e. you want to keep using federal taxpayer money to buy the farm vote for Republican candidates), and / or a Trumpist, you probably hate anything. that I proposed. But it is time for the new Biden administration to pull back the curtain on which is the real party of socialism in America.
Steven Strauss is a lecturer and visiting professor at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, an economic development specialist and a member of the USA TODAY Contributors Council. Follow him on Twitter: @Steven_Strauss
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