Put a couple of reasonable people in a room together, and they could easily split those very small differences.
But it seems that Boehner could not sell that plan to more than half the House Republicans.
So he pushed for a vote on a plan that would have raised tax rates only for those earning over $1 million — a plan that would have also hit working folks hard because of cuts to the child tax credit and earned income tax credit.
“If both sides agree that taxes and spending can be used to offset recessions, then why can’t we use fiscal policy more effectively?”
President Obama and leaders of both parties need to do a better job of educating Americans about the simple realities of the arithmetic.
And the news media needs to do a better job of it too.
Before I continue to the numbers, I want to say that I’ve been surprised over the last few years to realize that so many Americans simply reject data collected and analyzed by independent scholars, economists, government workers following strict methodology, and other experts. So many Americans just want to go with their gut — they want to believe, well, what they believe.
I’d encourage all readers who are closely following the so-called “fiscal cliff” negotiations to take a look at this great interactive feature at the Wall Street Journal today: Make Your Own Deficit-Reduction Plan
Americans interested in understanding how the economy works need to turn off the 24-hour news networks and find better sources for their information.
Federal, state, and local government revenues meanwhile slipped from 28.6 percent of GDP in 1980 to 26.9 percent in 2010. Again, the recession is in part to blame for the recent decline in tax revenues, and Obama’s original stimulus and followup steps to goose the economy have also involved hefty tax cuts.
Some are arguing for the fiscal cliff because we would reset the budget debate. With so many members of Congress taking a hard line on tax increases, there’s little way to increase revenues — and without more revenue there’s little chance of ever balancing the federal budget.
Ryan will likely fare fine in debates. He’s attractive and a good speaker (although he’s going to look a little too much like a long lost Romney son in campaign ads). His presence might inject into the campaign some real discussion about the federal budget and how to avoid the upcoming fiscal cliff — but the majority of voters will disagree with Ryan’s specific prescriptions. The more they hear, the less they’ll like.
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