Time For a Change

With the Iraq war running at around $1 billion/day, and now with New Orleans repair estimates running anywhere from $20 - $100 billion, not to mention future Medicare burdens, you've got to wonder where the money is going to come from? (I purposely didn't include Social Security obligations because, despite the trumped up circus show earlier in the year by the administration, Social Security is a relatively tiny problem.) Oh, and a small matter of those tax cuts from the past and the ones yet to come.

From Aaron Kinney at Salon:

Liberals don't want to raise taxes just for the sake of it, or because people shouldn't be able to keep their own money, or because the federal government should have more power over Americans' lives. Taxes must be raised because the Bush administration is leading this country on a path of financial disaster. At some point, the books must be balanced and the administration's supply-side misadventure must be stopped.

Tax increases are like Social Security, a third rail. Few........no that's not right. NO politicians seem to have the guts to show the leadership and advocate this position, at least on a national level. But as Mr. Kinney suggests above, maybe this is the time to actually consider a well-thought out plan to increase taxes.

Yeah...I know. When popsicles freeze in hell under the Bush administration and a GOP dominated Congress. But perhaps this could be a portion of the Democratic strategy in 2006. If you do it in the Congressional elections, you give freedom for "safe" Dems to push this idea thrusting it on the national stage, while allowing closely contested seats the options not to. You also avoid having a Presidential nominee have to take this stand, at least until a majority of the American people are on board.

The deficit/debt is like that old oil change commercial, "pay me now or pay me later". It's just a matter of whether we plan for it or just let the interest on the debt continue to crowd out real investment in the United States while economic expansion gets crowded out by government borrowing, and we continue to grow in our dependence on Chinese supplying the cashola to finance our debt.

But that's a whole other rants now isn't it.