Your tax increase is my spending cut

[feuervogel]

Ezra Klein

I spent time digging through the federal budget this week, and I concluded that Republicans are right: There is plenty of spending to cut. For instance, we’ve got one government program that hands people money to buy houses that, in most cases, they would buy anyway. They get even more money if they buy a more expensive house. Over the next five years, that program alone will cost almost $500 billion. That can’t be the best use of taxpayer dollars.

Another federal agency will spend more than $400 billion to reward people for making money by investing and earning capital gains and dividends rather than by going to work and taking their income in wages. I like investors and I participate in the market, but is this really the sort of activity that requires a $400 billion subsidy?

Go read the rest.

Comments

[beth_leonard]

*nod* That's my biggest annoyance with the current tea party stance. It's time to get out my phone and make some calls. Ceasing ethanol subsidies is not "raising taxes." I could possibly see that they might be doing it so that it's a point they can later concede on to get a measure passed, but sticking to those guns at the 11th hour does not earn my support, much as I do agree with cutting spending.

--Beth