Personally, I DO NOT want higher taxes. Nor, do I support the expansion of entitlements being pushed by the Obama administration. But, at the end of the day, if that’s what the majority wants, we will do it.
In that case, I would RATHER taxes went up on everyone to pay for these goodies. The reason is so that we would feel the pain and understand the tradeoff. Part of the problem now is that the electorate wants all the benefits in the world for free. Most people don’t like the deficit, but its kind of an abstraction to them and (therefore) easy to ignore. Paying higher taxes is a lot less abstract.
It would be even better if we could somehow break a person’s taxes down in terms of specific Government program. Healthcare costs you $4000 per year. Welfare costs you $3000 per year, etc. That would focus people’s attention real fast.
If an itemized bill were to be drawn up for federal taxes, at least 50% of the electorate would now see a $0 charge for every item. The takers now exceed the payers, and will until a new order is established.