THIS WHOLE OP-ED IS A LIE…
…WE HAVE NO PROBLEMS WITH TAXES. WE ONLY HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THE OUT OF CONTROL SPENDING BY THE CON ARTISTS IN WASHINGTON. REVENUES TO THE TREASURY ARE BACK TO 2007 LEVELS BUT SPENDING IS UP $800 BILLION/YEAR. IT IS AMAZING THAT THESE PEOPLE GET TO WRITE OP-EDS FULL OF LIES. NOTICE NO HARD DOLLAR NUMBERS ARE WRITTEN IN THIS OP-ED. JUST ANOTHER HACK! READ THIS:
Despite Republican propaganda to the contrary, the long-term fiscal problem of the United States is principally that revenues are too low. If fixing this problem required a legislated tax increase, the nation would be in serious trouble, because Republicans will forever block it as long as they have the ability. Fortunately, they handed Barack Obama the power to permanently fix our fiscal problem if he has the courage and skill to use it.
The core problem, from the Republicans’ point of view, is that they stupidly enacted temporary tax cuts during the George W. Bush administration. Their expiration creates a bludgeon that could eventually beat sense into them on the tax issue.
At the time the tax cuts were enacted, I recall arguing with my longtime friendGrover Norquist that temporary tax cuts were a really bad idea. Supply-side theory has always held that permanent tax changes are vastly more powerful than temporary changes, I told him. He didn’t disagree, but said the Bush tax cuts were de facto permanent because Democrats would never have the guts to permit them to expire; they would be renewed forever. People and businesses will know that, Mr. Norquist said.
SOURCE: http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com