Billionaire Warren Buffett has been saying this for a long time, but today he says it again in the New York Times here. And he's not the only wealthy person I've heard say that it's time to stop talking about cutting taxes (are you listening, Republicans?) and start talking about raising them on the people who can afford it.
If you look at our tax rates, they are at almost historic lows, as evidenced by the chart here. Why are they so low? Because in order to keep getting reelected to office, the Republicans keep cutting them. Remember the reasoning given for putting the Bush tax cuts into effect was that the Clinton administration had left behind a budget surplus. We don't have a surplus anymore, in case nobody on that side has noticed! But still they want to keep the Bush tax cuts in place. Why? Because they say raising taxes in a recession isn't a good idea. OK, so if they don't want to raise them when we have a surplus, and they don't want to raise them when we don't have a surplus...
By the way, when the Bush tax cuts went into effect I didn't even notice the change in my paycheck. The largest chunk of that went to... you guessed it... the wealthy. Who, not coincidentally, by and large vote Republican. So once again, it's not about what's best for the country -- as evidenced by their fight over the debt limit -- it's about whether or not they'll get reelected. Common sense has left Washington, D.C. and I don't see it coming back anytime soon.
