While Josh Marshall is right about Bush's tax cuts being motivated by ideology rather than economics, the big surprise here is that he presents this fact as if it were somehow revelatory. Of course the Bush tax cuts are unrelated to the functional health of the overall economy. As we have seen, even as the nation is spending a whopping $119.4 billion on our adventure in Iraq, the Bushies aren't budging one iota on their tax policy. As Nancy Pelosi said over the weekend, "They keep saying we need to 'stay the course', but that's not a plan – that's a slogan." Most Americans aren't economists, so most of us are fairly susceptible to sloganeering when it comes to political discourse on the economy. Raise taxes. Lower taxes. Good vs Evil. Bush has always been for lowering taxes; especially capital gains taxes, property taxes, federal estate taxes, etc. He doesn't really give a shit about sales taxes or income taxes. A real novelty would be a candidate who said, "We have the largest and most complicated economy the world has ever known. You can't make decisions of economic policy based on incredibly simplistic notions like this one: 'lower taxes is goodest for economy…now I'm gonna go fuck dat oinky pig in the puddle over yonder'. I'll lower taxes when I can and I'll raise 'em when I must. So back off. That's my tax policy."