“Cantor and Kyl just threw Boehner and McConnell under the bus. This move is an admission that there will be a need for revenues and Cantor and Kyl don't want to be the ones to make that deal.”
That's the spin from a senior Democratic aide on the abandonment of the debt reduction talks by the last two remaining Republicans.
The issue is whether we are going to have this huge attempt at cutting the deficit without any raising of revenues at all, at a time when taxation is at its lowest as a percentage of GDP in fifty years and when marginal rates are lower for everyone but the poor than they were under Ronald Reagan. In my view, that is as irresponsibly ideological as it is unfair.
I favor very sharp cuts in Medicare – including means-testing where we can and every cost-control experiment that works. I favor ending corporate welfare, agricultual subsidies and the myriad tax breaks that make the code beyond the reach of most tax-payers. I support gradual, structural defense cuts to bring down the percentage of GDP we spend on defense to be similar to our NATO partners.
But if we are to make these sacrifices, we simply have to ask for balance – and some contribution from those who have done so well in an era where so many have done so poorly.
The Tories in Britain have enacted unprecedented cuts in public spending. But they also raised taxes, as Reagan did five times, to target the debt from the revenue angle as well. Why cannot the US Republicans be as pragmatic as the British Tories? Why can they not accept that under the current circumstances, avoiding default and cutting the debt are more important that ideological purity on taxes, especially in such a relatively low-tax environment?
The Dish 