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How the antitax fringe went mainstream-and now threatens America's future
The postwar United States enjoyed large, widely distributed economic rewards-and most Americans accepted that taxes were a reasonable price to pay for living in a society of shared prosperity. Then in 1978 California enacted Proposition 13, a property tax cap that Ronald Reagan hailed as a "second American Revolution," setting off an antitax, antigovernment wave that has transformed American politics and economic policy. In The Power to Destroy, Michael Graetz tells the story of the antitax movement and how it holds America hostage-undermining the nation's ability to meet basic needs and fix critical problems.
In 1819, Chief Justice John Marshall declared that the power to tax entails "the power to destroy." But The Power to Destroy argues that tax opponents now wield this destructive power. Attacking the IRS, protecting tax loopholes, and pushing tax cuts from Reagan to Donald Trump, the antitax movement is threatening the nation's social safety net, increasing inequality, ballooning the national debt, and sapping America's financial strength. The book chronicles how the movement originated as a fringe enterprise promoted by zealous outsiders using false economic claims and thinly veiled racist rhetoric, and how-abetted by conservative media and Grover Norquist's "taxpayer protection pledge"-it evolved into a mainstream political force.
The important story of how the antitax movement came to dominate and distort politics, and how it impedes rational budgeting, equality, and opportunities, The Power to Destroy is essential reading for understanding American life today. Michael J. Graetz is professor emeritus at Columbia Law School and Yale Law School and a leading authority on tax politics and policy. He served in the U.S. Treasury's Office of Tax Policy and is the author and coauthor of many books, including Death by a Thousand Cuts: The Fight over Taxing Inherited Wealth (Princeton) and The Burger Court and the Rise of the Judicial Right.
"You can't understand what happens in Washington without understanding the politics of taxation, which have been central to American public life since the Sons of Liberty dumped tea in Boston Harbor, and have become even more central in the last half century, with the antitax takeover of the Republican Party. Michael Graetz intimately understands both the policy and the politics, enabling him to spin an irresistible yarn."-Alan Murray, CEO of Fortune Media and author of Tomorrow's Capitalist: My Search for the Soul of Business
"Our national resistance toward taxation in recent decades was not inevitable. In this provocative and comprehensive history, Michael Graetz provides an insightful narrative of a full-scale conservative movement that formed in the 1970s to undermine and dismantle the federal tax system. The objectives were regressive and the methods effective. Fighting taxes became the new anticommunism in conservative politics. A must-read for anyone interested in American politics beyond the headlines."-Julian E. Zelizer, author of Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich and the Rise of the New Republican Party
"The Power to Destroy brilliantly shows how often the antitax movement has been allied against racial equity, beginning with Lee Atwater's notorious ads against so-called welfare queens and the fight over California's Proposition 13. This book is required reading for anyone who wants to understand the origins and staying power of the antitax movement that has done so much to define the state of our schools, our transportation, our housing, and our politics. And no one is more qualified to tell this story than Michael Graetz."-Deborah N. Archer, president of the ACLU
"With analytical panache, Michael Graetz has provided a fascinating policy history that navigates transformations to the political economy of taxation
The postwar United States enjoyed large, widely distributed economic rewards-and most Americans accepted that taxes were a reasonable price to pay for living in a society of shared prosperity. Then in 1978 California enacted Proposition 13, a property tax cap that Ronald Reagan hailed as a "second American Revolution," setting off an antitax, antigovernment wave that has transformed American politics and economic policy. In The Power to Destroy, Michael Graetz tells the story of the antitax movement and how it holds America hostage-undermining the nation's ability to meet basic needs and fix critical problems.
In 1819, Chief Justice John Marshall declared that the power to tax entails "the power to destroy." But The Power to Destroy argues that tax opponents now wield this destructive power. Attacking the IRS, protecting tax loopholes, and pushing tax cuts from Reagan to Donald Trump, the antitax movement is threatening the nation's social safety net, increasing inequality, ballooning the national debt, and sapping America's financial strength. The book chronicles how the movement originated as a fringe enterprise promoted by zealous outsiders using false economic claims and thinly veiled racist rhetoric, and how-abetted by conservative media and Grover Norquist's "taxpayer protection pledge"-it evolved into a mainstream political force.
The important story of how the antitax movement came to dominate and distort politics, and how it impedes rational budgeting, equality, and opportunities, The Power to Destroy is essential reading for understanding American life today. Michael J. Graetz is professor emeritus at Columbia Law School and Yale Law School and a leading authority on tax politics and policy. He served in the U.S. Treasury's Office of Tax Policy and is the author and coauthor of many books, including Death by a Thousand Cuts: The Fight over Taxing Inherited Wealth (Princeton) and The Burger Court and the Rise of the Judicial Right.
"You can't understand what happens in Washington without understanding the politics of taxation, which have been central to American public life since the Sons of Liberty dumped tea in Boston Harbor, and have become even more central in the last half century, with the antitax takeover of the Republican Party. Michael Graetz intimately understands both the policy and the politics, enabling him to spin an irresistible yarn."-Alan Murray, CEO of Fortune Media and author of Tomorrow's Capitalist: My Search for the Soul of Business
"Our national resistance toward taxation in recent decades was not inevitable. In this provocative and comprehensive history, Michael Graetz provides an insightful narrative of a full-scale conservative movement that formed in the 1970s to undermine and dismantle the federal tax system. The objectives were regressive and the methods effective. Fighting taxes became the new anticommunism in conservative politics. A must-read for anyone interested in American politics beyond the headlines."-Julian E. Zelizer, author of Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich and the Rise of the New Republican Party
"The Power to Destroy brilliantly shows how often the antitax movement has been allied against racial equity, beginning with Lee Atwater's notorious ads against so-called welfare queens and the fight over California's Proposition 13. This book is required reading for anyone who wants to understand the origins and staying power of the antitax movement that has done so much to define the state of our schools, our transportation, our housing, and our politics. And no one is more qualified to tell this story than Michael Graetz."-Deborah N. Archer, president of the ACLU
"With analytical panache, Michael Graetz has provided a fascinating policy history that navigates transformations to the political economy of taxation