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In terms of domestic policy, no issue moreclearly defines the presidency of George W. Bush than taxation. Among Democrats, it even exceeds Iraq as the issue that motivates their loathing. Thus, during the recent Democratic primaries, Senator Joseph Lieberman and Representative Richard Gephardt continued to support the invasion of Iraq despite strong opposition from the party’s base. But every candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination supported repeal, in whole or in part, of the Bush tax cuts.

It is difficult to think of another period in American history when tax policy was so polarizing an issue. Ronald Reagan pushed a highly controversial cut through Congress during his first year in office, but then he raised taxes almost continuously throughout the balance of his presidency. His tax-reform legislation in 1986 received broad bipartisan support. Bill Clinton’s 1993 increase was contentious but rather modest, and by 1997 he had joined congressional Republicans in support of the first major tax cut since 1981.

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