One gem from the never-going-to-get-passed-ever “deficit reduction panel” report:
The proposed simplification of the tax code would repeal or modify a number of popular tax breaks — including the deductibility of mortgage interest payments — so that income tax rates could be reduced across the board. Under the plan, individual income tax rates would decline to as low as 8 percent on the lowest income bracket (now 10 percent) and to 23 percent on the highest bracket (now 35 percent). The corporate tax rate, now 35 percent, would also be reduced, to as low as 26 percent.
Even after reducing the rates, the overhaul of the tax code would still yield additional revenue to reduce annual deficits — a projected $80 billion in 2015.
Although I agree with the overall sentiment of simplifying the nation’s byzantine tax code, I still don’t know how it became conventional wisdom that the only way to reduce the deficit must be a massive tax cut.
Maybe, just maybe, we might need to pay more taxes to fill the deficit hole, especially with all these big spending programs like Medicare and two never-ending wars. Nah, more tax cuts! Across the board! For everyone!
Just in case anyone has forgotten:
Tax ’em till they squeal, dammit!
[…] an argument to be made that going against tax cuts is always stupid (an argument that is wrong, of course). But the tactical point is, the Obama administration just made clear that it gave up the tax cut […]