Chait: GOP North Star: Rich People Should Pay Less

I’ve recently discovered Jonathan Chait and find that his insights are routinely worth reading and re-reading.  His writings on the GOP’s sequester madness have been valuable in putting some pilings underneath what was a bottomless swamp of unreason.

If they’re as concerned as they say about the debt and deficit, then why have they sworn off the entire revenue side of that equation?  If they’re willing to consider closing loopholes, then why won’t they accept that deal?  Etc.  These cuts endanger a fragile economic recovery and threaten lots of regular Americans.  And for what?

Chait’s insight here is that we can understand at least some of what they are doing if we understand that they’ve reverted to form, “with low taxes for the rich dominating all other considerations.”

Here’s his piece making that case: The Republican Sequestration Plan

And here are some other related pieces, by him and by others:

• The Perfect Logic of Boehner’s Crazy Sequester Strategy (Chait)
• False Equivalence: The Master Class (Fallows, on the failure of opinion leaders like the Washington Post editorial board to accurately describe the situation)
• The false equivalence pundits are part of the problem (Sargent, on the same problem)