I don't think I have ever recycled a column before but the whole question of tax cuts and all the issues it involves never really changes. In November, 2007, I wrote a column for The Tyee and rabble.ca focusing on Conservative finance Minister Jim Flaherty's five year tax cut plan. This up-coming cut to corporate taxes (by 1.5%, binging the level to 15%, the lowest in the G7)) is the final outrageous installment. Here's what I said then. Nothing has changed -- except now we have a huge deficit to deal with, and the corporate tax cuts are even more irresponsible.

Why tax cuts make us weak

Taxes are the price of a civilized society. Support them.

Being preposterously rich means never having to say you're sorry. You can, for example, say the most outlandish things and get away with it. Steve Schwarzman is a mogul in the shady private-equity world, the 53rd richest man in the United States. He's worth a cool $7.8-billion and has friends in very high places. Yet Steve Schwarzman is not happy, as President Barack Obama would like to raise taxes on his industry. If I were in Mr. Schwarzman's shoes, I'd be unhappy too. If the President gets away with it, Mr. Schwarzman and company might have to pay the same level of taxes as their secretaries. This, he says, means war: "It's like when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939."

The deficit commission released its much anticipated list of helpful money-saving tips for the federal government last week. These tips include tax cuts for the rich, reducing unnecessary printing costs, and cutting the jobs of federal contractors.

The recommendations are more like a menu than a program. As Mark Schmitt of The American Prospect notes, there’s no coherent vision, just a list of possible tax increases and program cuts with projected savings attached.

The commission was dubbed the Cat Food Commission by critics who see the project as an attempt by the Obama administration to provide political cover to gut Social Security, thereby forcing the elderly to subsist on cat food.