Conservatives Are Prisoners of Their Own Tax Cuts

Opinion|Conservatives Are Prisoners of Their Own Tax Cuts

Aside from hype artists and White House spokespeople, it’s hard to find true enthusiasm for the sweeping new policy law, even among Republicans who voted for its passage. But because almost all Republicans did vote for it, with even the supposed deficit hard-liners mostly falling into line, the strongest remaining critiques are coming from the center and the left, with a special focus on the legislation’s cuts to Medicaid.

Given President Trump’s promises to protect that program and the importance of Medicaid for many voters in his coalition, that’s the place of greatest political vulnerability and the likeliest source of short-term blowback.

But to highlight the law’s failure to address some of America’s most important problems, I want to imagine a different set of critiques, more associated with forms of conservatism than with liberalism or the left.

First (in the voice of a defense hawk), the law doesn’t do nearly enough for defense. The United States is facing the most difficult geopolitical environment since the end of the Cold War, with multiple hot zones where our weaponry is needed and the threat of a rival superpower girding for potential war. Yet our defense budget is puttering along somewhere between 3 and 4 percent of gross domestic product, well below what we spent in the Reagan era and the war on terrorism years, let alone the early Cold War.

The new law does increase military spending, but as a one-time boost, not a sustained strategic commitment. That’s an insufficient response to our challenges in the Middle East, Ukraine and Asia, and a larger failure of vision in a multipolar age.

Second (in the voice of a social conservative), the law doesn’t do enough for family and fertility. No problem shadows the world right now like demographic collapse, and while the United States is better off than many countries, the birthrate has fallen well below replacement levels here as well. Family policy can’t reverse these trends, but public support for parents can make an important difference. Yet the law’s extension of the child tax credit leaves it below the inflation-adjusted level established in Trump’s first term.