Sunday, April 18, 2004
David Cay Johnston has a nice piece today in the NY Times on how the 2003 Bush and Cheney tax returns “demonstrate how far American tax policy has veered from two classic philosophical insights about how to finance government: ‘horizontal equity’ and ‘vertical equity.’” In her article, Democracy, Equality, and Taxes, Maureen Cavanaugh (Washington & Lee) observed that “Athenian democracy, with its complete commitment to political equality, allocated its tax burden to the wealthy and exempted ordinary citizens from tax, an exemption largely responsible for incorporation of ordinary (i.e., non-wealthy) citizens in democratic government.” In the NY Times piece, Cavanaugh notes that the Bush-Cheney tax returns reflect a shift away from the ability-to-pay ideal. Johnston concludes that “One thing’s for sure: Judging from the Cheney and Bush returns, we’ve come a long way indeed from the classic tax policies of ancient Greece.”
