Posted by
Always To The Right on Wednesday, February 25, 2009 2:25:03 PM
Your taxes are going up. Permanently.
Your taxes are going up.
They will probably go up in the coming decade, and the increase will be permanent. For a half-century, federal taxes have remained
fairly constant relative to the size of the American economy — equal to
about 18 percent of gross domestic product. But the 18 percent era has
to end soon.
It won’t end because President Obama is some radical tax and spender, either. It will end because of a basic economic reality.
Americans have made it clear that they want a certain kind of
government, one that can field a strong military and also maintain
popular programs like Medicare.
Yet we are not paying nearly enough taxes to maintain those programs.
Even major changes to the health care system — the single most
important step for closing the budget gap — will not close it entirely.
Taxes must rise, too.