The truth hurts

[hank scorpio]

E.J. Dionne: Deficit honesty proves highly unpopular in U.S.

http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles ... dionne.txt
By E.J. DIONNE JR.
Of the Washington Post

WASHINGTON - The debate on the budget is phony, the howling on deficits a charade. Few politicians want to acknowledge that if you really are concerned about long-term deficits, you have to support tax increases.

That's why the most significant moment of President Obama's news conference on Tuesday was not his dodge of a question on AIG, but his defense of the least popular tax increase in his budget: limits on the benefits wealthier taxpayers get for their charitable contributions and mortgage payments.

It has been a long time since a president was willing to defend raising taxes. You have to go back to Bill Clinton and his 1993 budget. The consequences for Democrats who voted for that budget - no Republicans did - were grave. Republicans swept the 1994 elections and held on to the House for 12 years. No wonder politicians are so phobic about taxes.

Obama himself is only going part of the way on tax increases. He is still arguing that he can fix things with hikes on just the top 5 percent of taxpayers.

He's right that a large share of any increase should hit those who enjoyed the biggest income gains over the last decade. But in the end, no politician (with the possible exception of libertarian Ron Paul) is willing to cut the budget enough to contain the deficit without a general tax increase down the road.

Every budget analyst knows this, and every politician knows that it's far easier to bemoan deficits in the abstract than to risk spending cuts or tax increases that hurt sizeable groups of voters.

In an ideal world, Obama would come right out and say we'll need broad-based tax increases. But that would be suicidal right now. Witness the reaction to his effort to put a 28 percent ceiling on deductions. His proposal would affect only 1.2 percent of taxpayers, yet even that idea is about to die in Congress.

[OL FU]

I read that oped early this morning and I now firmly believe that EJ ranks up there with the stupidest commentators I have ever read.

[TwinTownBisonFan]

That's the most salient thing I've read from a pundit in a long time.

He's spot on.

[OL FU]

That's the most salient thing I've read from a pundit in a long time.

He's spot on.

Glad we agree

[travelinman67]

Yet Obama has no qualms about quadrupling the deficit...

...guess it take more guts to ruin your political career than ruin your country.