Hard to escape the cut spending and don't raise taxes argument we seem to hear from every corner of Washington these days and echoed in every form of media. I'm personally tired of Joh Boehner's insistence that every form of expenditure is "job-kiling." (Wish it would be productive for Democrats to respond to the mind-numbing and uncreative rhetoric the Republicans subject us to.) So I was glad to see Lori Montgomery's front-page in The Washington Post this morning. She offers the convincing argument
The biggest culprit, by far, has been an erosion of tax revenue triggered largely by two recessions and multiple rounds of tax cuts. Together, the economy and the tax bills enacted under former president George W. Bush, and to a lesser extent by President Obama, wiped out $6.3 trillion in anticipated revenue. That’s nearly half of the $12.7 trillion swing from projected surpluses to real debt. Federal tax collections now stand at their lowest level as a percentage of the economy in 60 years.
Even my Congressman took a look at this article and called attention to it on Twitter.
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GerryConnolly |
I'm reminded of a story I saw on the NewsHour a few days ago, a commentary on the wedding in England and the backdrop of the austerity approach the British government is taking. Almost in passing, New York Times London Bureau Chief John Burns observed
JOHN BURNS: Well, it's true. It's true there is a lot of pain being inflicted by this austerity cut. The government has declared an across-the-board 20 percent cut in government expenditures over the last -- over the next four years. Put another way, it means rolling the British economy back five or six years.
A few years I was taken by a Tom Peters statement, "You can't shrink your way to greatness." It still rings true to me, and it seems to be the right frame for the current debate.