Impermanence is a doctrine of Buddhism. Now it characterizes the U.S. tax system. For more on that, see today’s Wall Street Journal. I post about it here only to highlight a point I raised in my earlier post:
Deficits tempt legislators to give tax provisions a temporary term to disguise their cost. For proponents of a new tax provision, the strategy is to get a foot in the door by passing it for a year or two, at a seemingly affordable cost, intending to renew it regularly.
That’s the ten-year budget window in action. We see the same game with the Medicare doc fix. It’s everywhere and it’s irresponsible. Politicians love it. Americans (mostly) don’t get it.
