America Has To Pay For Its Lifestyle

There has been voluminous research done in the political science field that shows that the more successful a people become the more they demand from their government in terms of services. Consequently, the more prosperous America becomes (in terms of decades, if not centuries, in this case) the higher gross governmental spending will increase.

Given that governmental spending will continue to increase (as a percentage of total GDP), taxes must also scale upwards. It's not popular, but it's reality.

So when you look at the unsustainable tax cuts for the rich, coupled with 8 years of Bush deficit spending, you have to let them expire.

So says economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the fiscal conservative who shilled for the McCain campaign despite knowing the continuation of the Bush-era tax cuts were harmful. He now thinks they should be allowed to expire on Dec. 31, 2010:

"If you ask: 'Who pays the taxes?', it's the first step toward not having the answer be: 'Our kids.'"

As proud as we are, America has crumbling infrastructure, obscene disparity of wealth, unaffordable health care and bleak employment prospects because, since Reagan, we have been reluctant to tax appropriately to fund the benefits citizens expect/demand/require.

The Reagan and Bush disasters have all just borrowed and spent and put the burden of the ultimate bill on someone else. It's not like they cut taxes and managed to balance anything. They have just written trillions in IOUs to the next generation.

If we are going to live like Americans, it's time we are going to have to pay for it through taxes like Americans.

Source: Political Wire