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November 30, 2011

Forum: Pledge to Norquist? Or Constitution?

By Porter Abbott ----

A recent ad for U.S. Rep. Dave Camp, R-Midland, states that "protecting taxpayers should be the No. 1 job of every member of Congress."

And, indeed, the congressman, like many of his Republican colleagues, swore to the Norquist pledge never to raise taxes. This is bizarre, since the No. 1 job he swore to when he took office was to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States." He did not swear never to raise taxes.

Nor is there anything like this in the Constitution he swore to support and defend. The first sentence of the Constitution lists the No. 1 jobs most of us still want our legislators to pursue: justice, domestic tranquility, the common defense, the general welfare and the blessings of liberty. The Constitution then lists in Article 1, Section 8, the powers Congress has to do these jobs, among them the power to collect taxes, but nothing about protecting taxpayers from any raise in taxes.

There's good reason for this. By swearing a second oath restricting the exercise of powers granted to him by the Constitution, the congressman has restricted his ability to pursue his constitutionally mandated jobs.

When, for example, we went to war to achieve "the common defense," we raised taxes to pay for it. Abraham Lincoln levied a tax to pay for the Civil War. Likewise, the costs of World Wars I and II, the Korean War, and the War in Vietnam were paid for by raising taxes. This distribution of the cost of war has been our way of sharing something of the greater burden borne by our soldiers.

But in the last decade we have strayed from this honorable way of balancing our books. Instead of raising taxes to pay for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, taxes were lowered and we were told to go shopping.

So, to cover the costs of two wars, the president and the Congress exercised another of their constitutional powers: They borrowed. And they, and we, are still borrowing for the cost of these wars, now past $1.2 trillion and growing. What made us start behaving like children?

Now, of course, we're in a serious recession, so it would be unwise to tax the working and middle classes whose money goes right back into the economy.

But surely those who have profited handsomely during this decade, who still profit handsomely, who in years past contributed handsomely when we needed them to, and whose effective tax is as low as it's been in the last 60 years, surely they can step up to the plate again.

It's not a cure-all, but it would certainly help, morally as well as economically.

What stands in the way is the pledge of allegiance to Grover Norquist, an arguably unconstitutional wedge that has been jammed into the legislative process. It has doomed the supercommittee, and it will continue to doom our efforts until we start electing legislators who will not bind themselves to anything but their oath of office.

About the author: Porter Abbott taught English literature for 40 years at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is a specialist in the fields of narrative and rhetoric. During the recession years of the early 1990s, he served as dean of arts and humanities. He lives in Northport.

About the forum: The forum is a periodic column of opinion written by Record-Eagle readers in their areas of interest or expertise. Submissions of 500 words or less may be made by e-mailing letters@record-eagle.com. Please include biographical information and a photo.

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