Last night I was on John King USA with former White House Communications Director Anita Dunn. We had an exchange that left me, in one of those rare cases, totally at a loss for words.We were discussing taxes and spending and the Republicans’ refusal to go along with unemployment benefits extensions unless spending is cut. The Democrats are attacking the GOP for wanting to extend “tax cuts for the rich” by letting the Bush tax cuts stay in place.I said I’d be all for extending unemployment benefits if more Democrats like Alvin Greene use them to become Democratic Senate nominees, but otherwise I believe we need to cut taxes instead of increase spending.And then Anita Dunn replied. I wish I had the video. I have no idea if they had my face on camera when she said it.She said that tax cuts were spending too. Huh?You read that right. She said cutting taxes was a form of spending. She tried to explain it. I was still trying to compute how what she said made any sense. I still can’t quite get my mind around how letting me keep my money is somehow the government spending my money.I finally just had to say that if tax increases and tax cuts are both forms of government spending then my money is really the government’s money. Ms. Dunn kind of sort of went along with that, explaining that tax cuts were some form of spending from the tax code. I think the expression on my face summed up my response to that.And that’s why the Democrats are losing now. Because they have no respect for your money as your money. They think it all belongs to the government.The exchange was actually a good one — a conversation. And I appreciated Ms. Dunn’s candor. But I’m still baffled how cutting the taxes you pay to the federal government is somehow the federal government spending money they then never were given to spend.
One of those rare moments when I'm at a loss for words
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