Friday, September 25, 2009

Fiscal Responsibility Requires Higher Taxes - Forbes.com

Fiscal Responsibility Requires Higher Taxes - Forbes.com

At some point, taxes have to be back on the table as the price that must be paid for profligate spending. Only then will the American people realize that they can't have their cake and eat it too, as Republicans have preached for the last decade. Only when the American people go back to believing that spending must be paid for will they stop demanding something for nothing and put the country back on the path to fiscal sanity.



I rarely agree with Bartlett, but thanks to him, and it should be obvious to all that cutting taxes for a few already-wealthy people during a deficit situation and passing the Medicare drug benefit without a means to pay for it - both simply to curry votes - were not conservative and just about the worst things that government could do for the economy. Yes, smash the tax code and rebuild it so corporations actually pay tax - a reasonable one, and rebuild it so everyone has the chance to benefit from itemized deductions - not just the already-wealthy.

This won't happen until we abolish the notion of corporate personhood, and stop deluding ourselves to believe that money is speech.

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