Bush-Hatin' Paul

Here is Paul Krugman's¹ latest column. Key paragraph:

The biggest problem facing the Obama plan, however, is likely to be the demand of many politicians for proof that the benefits of the proposed public spending justify its costs—a burden of proof never imposed on proposals for tax cuts.

To say that supporters of policy X bear the burden of proof is to say that there is a presumption against X. Krugman thinks that if there is a presumption against public spending, then there should be a presumption against tax cuts. This is false. Taxation is coercion. In a free society, there is a presumption against coercion. There is, therefore, a presumption against taxation (and in favor of tax cuts). Only someone who thinks that the government is entitled to people's money could think that there are symmetrical presumptions here.

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¹"Op-Ed columnist Paul Krugman has the disturbing habit of shaping, slicing and selectively citing numbers in a fashion that pleases his acolytes but leaves him open to substantive assaults" (Daniel Okrent, "13 Things I Meant to Write About but Never Did," The New York Times, 22 May 2005).