Are you suggesting that if you removed the grossly incorrect image of reality someone has and replaced it with a radically different one, that they would have the same opinions about closely related policy questions? I'm skeptical. People try to keep their view of reality in line with their political beliefs. How do you think Americans end up believing such wacky things?

The survey show something like 19% of people thought the were the top 1% and another 20% thought they would be someday.

If you're claiming that perpetuating this delusion would cancel out the effects of undermining the other delusion, you might be right. On the other hand, maybe curing this delusion too would compound the effect of curing the other delusion. Or hey, they might even be related.

Personally I just object to the tone of the rhetoric where politicians talk about "affording" or "paying for" a tax cut like they're giving away money. The reality is just that they're taking less money. Bit of a difference.

Personally, I think it's great when politicians use language that reminds people that it's our own government and our budget. Can I as a taxpayer, or we as taxpayers collectively, afford to move money from the "public expenditure" bucket to the "private expenditure" bucket? It's a reasonable question. What bothers me is politicians who suggest that spending cuts will just magically materialize and save the day if we don't pay enough taxes. Sorry, no, that doesn't just magically happen.

The alternative to reminding Americans of their responsibilities is to alienate them from the government, i.e., stop them from thinking like citizens of a democracy. Let them think the government can go completely to hell, ruin its credit and go bust, and the people will bear no responsibility. Let them think that government spending doesn't reflect the will of the people, so the people have no responsibility to pay for it. Or let them think that maybe government spending does reflect the will of the people, but that because they personally disagree with part of the spending, they aren't responsible for paying for the whole thing.

The truth is that it's in our interest to keep the government financially healthy and creditworthy. It makes a big difference to us whether the government pays its bills over the long term. It's also true that in a democracy we're responsible for the well-being of a government that doesn't follow our individual whims. When we ponder how to pay for government spending, we can't just think about how to pay for the spending we approve of. We're responsible for the whole thing, conservative or liberal, big spender or "fiscal conservative," whether we like it or not. I can't refuse to pay for the Iraq War just because I opposed it. Yet that's what pundits constantly implicitly ask us to do. They target conservatives especially: we should not pay enough taxes to support entitlements because entitlements are bad policy. Such-and-such is unsustainable; therefore, don't worry about paying for it.

Unfortunately, cutting taxes doesn't cause spending cuts. In a cash economy it might work, but in age of credit, when credit is necessary to get any business done, "starve the beast" is the practical equivalent of, "I'm going to eat so much that I'll be forced to exercise!" The one thing is only connected to the other by discipline (keeping revenue and spending in line) or catastrophe (failing to maintain our creditworthiness.) Pretending they're perforce connected under normal conditions, and hence the country should only collect enough revenue to pay for the spending we personally support, is a free pass to self-indulgence, because nobody in the country supports the entire budget. Since everybody opposes a significant chunk of federal spending, we would all agree on funding just a fraction of it. Then we could all blame the shortfall on the people who supported whatever fraction of spending we opposed. It would be -- no, it is -- a perfect scenario: nobody thinks the shortfall is our fault, even though we all support it!

That's absurd, of course. We're all responsible for the whole budget, even if we personally didn't support every piece of it. I'm responsible for finding some way of paying for the Iraq War. Conservatives are responsible for finding some way to pay for welfare benefits. It's our government; we're responsible. If we don't want to pay for something, we have to persuade our fellow citizens to oppose the spending, and if that isn't enough, we may need to reform our political processes. What we can't do, in an age when credit is a necessity for getting anything done, is agree as a nation not to pay for spending that we as a nation agree to indulge in. That's why it makes sense to ask if we can afford a tax cut.