Can always raise taxes to a reasonable level
You actually can’t. At least, probably can’t. Over the last 40 years, revenue as a percentage of GDP has hovered remarkably close to 18-19% no matter what our tax rates were. Look it up. You’ll be amazed how steady the line is. There’s only so much revenue you can squeeze out of the economy.
Ok, so if we’re ready to put the “just raise taxes” argument to rest, let’s get back to serious negotiations on what we actually can do to eliminate the deficit: cut spending.
I suggested above that we should move SS and Medicare spending, and FICA tax receipts that are supposed to pay for those programs, into Al Gore’s Lock Box. Do you realize that would save us about 400 billion a year?! That’s roughly amount our spending on these programs currently exceed the tax receipts to pay for them. Granted, we’ll have to figure out how to balance the Al Gore Lock Box, but one problem at time!
Boys, between the Lock Box and a 10% reduction to Medicaid and military, we’ve nearly balanced the federal budget! And we haven’t even touched the EPA or Dept of Education yet!!
Bipartisanship!