Up With the Submerged State

YOU MIGHT REMEMBER a letter you received from the federal government about a decade ago: “We are pleased to inform you that the United States Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed into law the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, which provides for long-term tax relief for all Americans who pay income taxes. You will be receiving a check.” And then there was the check itself, which was typically for $600. Alas, the letter and the check were almost a scam, since many taxpayers wound up paying the money back to the IRS the following year. And the checks to “all Americans” were only a tiny fraction of the $2.3 trillion cost of Bush’s tax cuts, most of which benefited the very wealthy. But thanks in part to the publicity campaign, the Bush tax cuts were generally popular, at least for the first few years.