tax hike

David Leonhardt writes bluntly at NYT:

Your taxes are going up.

They will probably go up in the coming decade, and the increase will be permanent. For a half-century, federal taxes have remained fairly constant relative to the size of the American economy -- equal to about 18 percent of gross domestic product. But the 18 percent era has to end soon.

Why? Not because Obama is a "radical tax and spender," but because:

Americans have made it clear that they want a certain kind of government, one that can field a strong military and also maintain popular programs like Medicare. Yet we are not paying nearly enough taxes to maintain those programs. Even major changes to the health care system -- the single most important step for closing the budget gap -- will not close it entirely. Taxes must rise, too.

Andrew Sullivan makes this observation:

[W]hen taxes have to go up because the most fiscally reckless president since FDR is followed by the worst depression since FDR, we should name the bill that raises them after George W. Bush. They will be his tax increases. And he deserves the honor of being immortalized by them.

As someone (I forget who) once wrote, Republicans raise taxes all the time--they just don't collect them. The GOP tout their "fiscal responsibility" slogan, but it's Democrats who get stuck with the actual responsibility.