“Shared sacrifice”, “fair share”; the mantras of those who’d raise taxes to cure our present ills… I’m sorry, but this has gone way beyond any semblance of commonsense… The Administrations and Congresses of the past decade+, consisting of both Republicans and Democrats, have furthered their respective agendas with no regard for anything other than what a fiat currency has to offer, i.e., unfettered printing…
Let’s rewind all the way back to the ancient times of 2007… In 2007 our budget was $2.7 trillion, against revenue of $2.5 trillion (sadly The Bush Administration was bragging about the mere $200 billion deficit)… Today our budget is $3.7 trillion, against revenue of $2.2 trillion… I.e., over the course of the past 4 years we’ve ramped up annual spending by $1 trillion while tax revenue has declined (due to recession, not tax cuts, mind you) by only $0.3 trillion… I.e., politicians have been fully engaged in sacrifice sharing… I.e., while you’ve been sacrificing your time and resources (working your rear off, raising your kids, paying your bills, your taxes, saving for retirement, etc.), our policymakers have been sharing (and leveraging) your tax dollars with whoever bests their odds of keeping their jobs…
Now I’m not entirely suggesting that raising taxes should be entirely out of the question… I’ve stated here before that if a corporate tax code overhaul, consisting of closing loopholes and lowering rates, results in a net increase in revenue, so be it… It’s the right thing to do, and I suspect that the certainty of a simpler tax code alone might inspire companies to begin deploying some of that $trillion+ resting on their balance sheets…
But let’s not pretend we’re in this fix as a result of heightened inequality…
It’s like 4 years ago you were making X, paying taxes, etc… Today (if you’re lucky) you’re still making X, paying taxes, etc… While 4 years ago the government was spending X… Today it’s spending Y (X+$1 trillion)… And they’d have you believe that the gap between government spending X and government spending Y is the result of you (or someone) not paying your (their) fair share… Ask yourself, is the problem taxes or spending? Now be honest…