The Budget Deficit: The Three Card Monty of Political Debates

Robert Samuelson, in an op-ed from last week, observerd that “We Americans are having the wrong debate.” He thinks the debate shouldn't be about whether the tax cuts will stimulate faster economic growth, or if the tax cut proposal is too stingy toward the middle class and the poor while being too generous towards the wealthy. Samuelson believes the “truth” is that we can't afford any tax reduction. He thinks we are under-taxed and offers proof of this by informing the reader that we haven't covered our spending for half a century. He wants the conversation to be about new taxes to reduce the deficit. He favors what he calls a carbon tax.