Last week, Republican U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford did something all too uncommon these days: He shot straight with his constituents, and he did it on two subjects - about how deep a hole the country is really in and about how we’ll have to cooperate to climb our way out of it.
Crawford, who represents eastern Arkansas’ 1st Congressional District, called for a 5 percent tax on all personal income above $1 million a year that would go into eftect only if Congress refers a balanced budget amendment to the states. The tax would go away in fi ve years if the states don’t ratify the amendment and in 10 years if they do.
The result was predictable. Crawford’s GOP congressional colleagues in the state delegation respectfully expressed their opposition.
Arkansas Democrats, who already believed Crawford is vulnerable this election cycle, called him a fl ipfl opper.
“The response thus far has been mostly negative with many conservatives calling for my head,” he wrote in an email to The New York Times. “I’ve had donors threaten to stop giving, and my staft has received a few acerbicemails.”
During a talk radio interview with Jonesboro’s Paul Harrell, Crawford said the country is in such debt that a tax increase of some kind is coming no matter what. Whatever agreement accompanies that should include a long-term fi x through a balanced budget amendment rather than short-term spending cuts that would leave us where we started.
That sounds suspiciously like a compromise, which is how the system is supposed to work.
Accepting something you don’t like in order to get something you do like - that’s out of fashion these days in Washington, but it’s essential in any organization, whether it’s a 535-member U.S. House or a two-person marriage.
Merely proposing a tax increase puts Crawford out of step with his fellow Republicans. The party line is, “Washington doesn’t have a taxing problem; it has a spending problem,” which is mostly true.
However, when you areas broke as the United States government is, you have problems on both sides of the ledger. Unless Americans are willing to make deep cuts in Social Security and Medicare - and polls show they aren’t - then the only way to come close to balancing the budget is to fi nd additional tax revenues somewhere.
That’s a hard truth, and Crawford spoke it.
“I don’t want to think that we have to raise revenues,” he told Harrell, “but the numbers are just not on our side on that score. And what I’m afraid of is that the kind of cutting that it would require would mean that there would be absolutely nothing left to keep our promises to our seniors with respect to Medicare and Social Security, and we would not be in a position to adequately care for the folks who genuinely need our help.”
It’s a bit of a thorny issue for Crawford because, like Arkansas’ other Republican members of Congress, as a candidate he signed the Americans for Tax Reform’s “Taxpayer Protection Pledge” promising to oppose all tax increases. Facts and circumstances change and wisdom and knowledge increase. Nevertheless, this proposal represents a break from what he promised during the campaign.
Maybe candidates should skip the pledges and just stick with the oath of off ce.
Crawford said that bringing up the idea is a political loser for him, and he’s right about that.
But I figure he made some calculations to reduce the impact. There aren’t many people in the 1st District who make $1 million a year. If he would have advanced this idea a month or two before the campaign fi ling period ended, he might have drawn a primary opponent.
I really don’t care either way. Even the best of us are motivated by a mix of altruism and self-interest.
Don’t expect the proposal to pass. Crawford is a relatively unknown freshman, and this is an election year. His party will not support him, and some won’t even claim him. A lot of people, including me, think a balanced budget amendment is the wrong solution, but that’s another column.
What’s most important is that a political candidate has given an honest appraisal of the country’s situation and proposed a compromise to do something about it.
Let’s hope he keeps doing that. Let’s hope many others join him.
STEVE BRAWNER IS AN INDEPENDENT JOURNALIST IN ARKANSAS.
Business, Pages 12 on 03/25/2012