Higher Tax Rates Don’t Equal Higher Revenues

[Geee]

National Review:

The fiscal-cliff negotiations seem to be foundering on Barack Obama’s insistence on higher tax rates on high earners and House Republican leaders’ insistence on opposing them. The president believes he has a mandate from voters for his position, and House Republicans believe they have a mandate from voters for theirs.

The real argument here is over the size and scope of government. Under Barack Obama, federal outlays — the technical term for federal spending — have increased to over 24 percent of gross domestic product.

Advertisement

That’s a higher level of federal spending than in any year since 1946, when we were demobilizing after World War II. And the Obama budgets envision federal spending continuing at such levels more or less indefinitely.