Thursday, February 26, 2009

Up with taxes

This is the most interesting thing I've read about taxes in a while.

The whole article is very useful, but here's a sample:

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. ...

“Something that’s unsustainable, like a dysfunctional relationship, can go on longer than you expect,” [President Obama's budget director Peter Orszag] has said, “and then end faster and messier than you think.”

RELATED: "1. The will of the people is wrong."

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