You'd sure never know it to listen to the gnashing of teeth and moaning and wailing of the Teabaggers, or to watch Faux News, but, according to a new study just released by the Bureau of Economic Research, American taxes at all levels, (federal, state, local) are actually at the lowest level in 60 years, thanks in large part to the Obama Tax Cuts in the Stimulus Package and through other means.
Total taxes now amount to only 9.2% of all personal income. I just got a nice charge posting this most inconvenient truth on a couple of conservative teabag-type websites and facebook pages. I'm sure it'll disturb their deranged narrative---for a minute, anyway. Sorry to put a dent in your self-flagellating faux victimization!!!
Debts and the deficit do remain at alarming and very dangerous level. Something serious, imho, will have to be done about those time bombs, and the sooner the better. Any feasible solution will probably include significant Defense cuts, which I was heartened to hear today that Secretary Gates is pursuing in a serious way, as well as tax increases, serious attacks on tax cheaters and avoiders, and, yes, attacks on not only waste, fraud, and abuse, but on some social spending and entitlement programs as well.
Gates pledges to refuse appropriation that are pork barrel and not even desired by DoD. The rescinding of the tax cuts for the rich are long overdue. But we also need serious attacks on Medicare fraud and waste, noncompetitive practices in DoD but also elsewhere in Government, and in some areas of social spending, we will simply have to do more w/less, and not featherbed teachers and others who can't make the grade or teach our kids effectively. A little intellectual and political honesty.