Quote:
Originally posted by baltassoc
I suspect the number of people who suddenly decided to vote against Kerry when they heard of his intention to raise taxes (excuse me, "roll back tax cuts") for people making $250k or more can be counted on one hand. Nobody who prioritizes taxes that much was going to vote for him anyway (See, e.g., sgtclub). The small percentage of the small percentage of American voters in this category who would have voted for him anyway (Bill Clinton, Steven Spielberg, Steve Jobs and the like) aren't going to suddenly sit up and take notice "Oh shit, Kerry's going to raise my taxes, better vote for Bush."
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A whole lot of people, the vast majority of whom vote, make over $250k/year. And a whole lot of them -- us -- recognize that as nice as it is to have that extra 20 grand or whatever in your pocket, the ballooning deficit is not worth the tradeoff.
That's particularly so for those who are post-Boomer. The deficits today are dramatically more threatening than those the last Repub administrations ran up, because we are much closer to the Boomer retirement that will strain our system so severely. Social Security can be tweaked in several ways to ease this problem a little bit, but that's only at the margins. Unless we deal with our budget, we face devastating consequences in the not-too-distant future.
The fed government has never effectively dealt with deficits without raising taxes. Yes, spending can be cut, but the political will to do it enough is lacking and we have cut domestic spending so drastically in so many areas that this too jeopardizes our future. Even Reagan recognized the need to raise taxes to reduce deficits. Even Bush I recognized that, and went back on his infamous "read my lips" pledge. Neither of them did it enough, and Clinton had to do it seriously to cure the deficits he inherited.
So, yeah, I expect my taxes to be raised, and it's a worthwhile tradeoff even without looking at the other issues that motivate me in this election (like the Iraq war, and the loss of world sympathy and respect, and not having John Ashcroft tell me what I can read and look at).
Meanwhile, I'm hoping to pay off my mortgage before the Boomers retired because I think that deduction may be history when the consequences of the Bush borrow-and-spend spree are realized.
