Michael Kelly Mort Kondracke Ch. But their effect is not just economic.
Taxes also help determine the character of civilized society and government and politics.
The debate between the two presidential candidates' tax policies has been conducted primarily on economic terms. These are sensible questions to ask. But it is also worthwhile asking what kind of government and politics Al Gore's and George W. Bush's very different tax plans will tend to produce. The first thing to recognize is that the Clinton-Gore administration and Democratic Congresses have put in place a new tax regime. The top income tax rate, set at 28 percent by the bipartisan tax reform act of 1986, by 1993 had been raised to 39.6 percent.