Four years ago I had the good fortune to meet William Rees-Mogg, then the editor of the (London) Times, and one of an apparently small number of contemporary journalists with the capacity for independent thought. He had written a tract on inflation called “The Reigning Error,” in which he advocated a restoration of the gold standard; it was a striking article, and I was eager to meet the man. Shortly thereafter he came to Washington. He remarked that the Republicans were bound to win the forthcoming election—this was in February 1980—because they now had the ideas on their side: Whatever one thought of the arguments adduced by the supply-siders, the monetarists, and the old-fashioned budget-balancers, their debate was at least interesting. The same, he felt, could not be said for the latest round in the Democrats’ bidding war for the crown of compassion; this could not hold the interest of anyone with an inquiring mind.
What about this year? Where are the interesting ideas today? One has the uncomfortable sense that they have been in hibernation for a couple of years, ever since President Reagan unwisely assented to the 1982 tax increase. Now all that we can see overhead, and stretching away to the horizon, are the grim, cheerless clouds of “deficit reduction.” They make one despondent, and they threaten another downpour of taxation.
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