Tripple Crisis Blogger Jeff Madrick published the following piece in the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis Blog, a Triple Crisis Partner. Madrick discusses various proposed budget plans that seek to reduce the budget deficit but will not consider raising taxes.
The current public discourse over cutting the federal budget is not about economics, but politics. Nothing is so striking as the fact that those seriously disturbed by a rising budget deficit and a growing debt-to-GDP level have so little to say about raising taxes—or if they do, it is with little conviction.
To the contrary, most of the officially sanctioned plans include tax cuts as a major component. How can this be? Surely, the great advocates of reducing budget deficits, such as the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, should be highly visible advocates of tax increases. If they are not—and they are not—they should justify their position.
The main exception is the refreshing budget recently released by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a truly enlightened effort to raise taxes judiciously, reform healthcare, and increase public investment.