Unless we're prepared to make major cuts in spending on defense and entitlements -- and there is no evidence of a political will to do so -- there's no way to balance the budget and do everything the president wants without a modest increase in the share of national income that goes to taxes. Full Story »
Posted by Derek Hawkins
The author restricts his analysis with assumptions and assertions that many economists question; "it's not a good idea to try to raise all that extra money just from households with annual incomes of more than $250,000..., a level at which taxes begin to discourage people from working and investing...that would prompt them to invest significant time and money to find new ways to evade taxes...Obama wants to raise the top income tax rate to 40 percent from 35 percent, which is probably as high as it ought to go." Missing from discussion is the effort to target offshore evasion havens, corporate loopholes, the 15% rate for some unearned income, and what may result if we do not soon arrive at "..once the current recession has passed."
“..it’s disappointing to see Democrats offering up the equally fantastic notion that Americans can have all the government they want while getting someone else to pay for it.”
That’s what the U.S. has been doing to the rest of the world in forcing the dollar into global reserve currency, so others have to underwrite our debt at rock-bottom interest rates.
This strikes me as Tax Fantasies of the Embedded Pundit. The global seizure of production and trade is far more serious than Beltway Reportage lets on, and focus on little tweaks to our tax structure are not at the epicenter when major nations are talking of a global currency or defections to a currency basket that will pull the easy money out from under our entire system.