Liberals want the Democrats to be more than Eisenhower Republicans. Robert Kuttner is nicely honest about it:

If Democrats are to be more than Eisenhower Republicans, one good idea is to tie particular tax increases to valued public spending purposes. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has talked up the idea of rolling back tax breaks for the hugely profitable oil industry, and using the proceeds to fund research and development of alternative energy. At the state level, liberals in Washington State handily defeated a ballot initiative to repeal that state’s estate tax (paid only by very large estates) by tying the proceeds of the tax to public education and college scholarships. Democrats also need to begin undoing the damage of three decades of government-bashing. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick set the right tone in the opening of his inaugural address. “For a very long time we have been told that government is bad,” he boldly declared, “. . . that its job is not important enough to be done by anyone competent, let alone committed, and that all of us are on our own.” He promised “a common cause to lay that fallacy to rest.” More Democrats in Washington need to start talking like that. Some of those telling us that government is bad were our last two Democratic presidents. Maybe, once we remember that much of what government does is highly valued, we can have a serious conversation on why government needs to be funded by fair taxes.

Me: Also, I do like the bit elsewhere in the column about how No Child Left Behind was “shortchanged.” Yes, I know the Kennedyesque argument there. But it’s always nice to see ginormous increases in education spending derided for their stingyness. It gives you a nice sense of what the Kuttners really have in mind.