I am posting the bottom half of the piece. clo
Compromise is an essential part of democracy, but negotiating with Republicans over taxes has become as futile as trying to bargain with the Taliban over whether girls should be allowed to attend school.
Maybe it's too late for facts to make a difference, but here are just a few:
• The overall tax burden as a share of the economy — 14.8% — is lower this year than it has been since Harry Truman was president in 1950.
• Tax revenue is low in part because the economy is weak. But it's also down because politicians of both parties have slashed rates and piled on exemptions with little regard for the government's ability to pay its bills. Average tax rates are the lowest they've been since the 1950s for the working poor, the 1960s for median-income Americans, and the 1970s for upper-income earners. Nearly half of tax filers pay no federal income tax at all.
• Republicans insist that tax cuts create jobs and hikes destroy them. So why did the economy boom after Ronald Reagan raised taxes in 1983 and Clinton raised them in 1993, and do the opposite after Bush cut taxes in 2001 and 2003? Taxes are just one factor in a complex economy.
Should taxes be part of the deficit-reduction mix? Absolutely. The debt problem is a result of too little revenue supporting too much spending; the solution has to involve both less spending and more revenue. Two bipartisan groups that spent months reviewing the options reached that conclusion.
If anything, the tax changes under discussion are too timid. The tax hikes Democrats were talking about before Republicans walked out of the debt-ceiling talks would have made up about one-fifth of the deficit-reduction package. And Obama continues to pretend that enough revenue can be raised by eliminating tax breaks for corporate jets and sparing the middle class. It can't.
The main obstacle, though, is that GOP leaders such as Sen. Mitch McConnell and Rep. Eric Cantor are digging the party in deeper every time they speak. If the Republicans' hands are tied on taxes, it's because they've supplied the rope and allowed people like Norquist to bind them.
for complete article:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2011-07-04-our-view-debt-limit-taxes_n.htm
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