“In fairness, the way to raise revenue and maintain existing rates is to make reductions to the Standard Deduction and exemptions.”
Fair to whom? The government takes to much and spends too much. Nothing fair about that.
The government by law and I think constitutional amendment imposes an income tax. At present very many people pay no income tax at all.
Real fairness dictates that those who pay no tax must pay something and the way to assure that is to decrease the Standard Deductions and exemptions. As it is, the present course is to leave the vast majority of taxpayers unburdened by attempting to make those who already pay the most, pay more.
As to taking too much, That is not really the issue in my post. The issue is to balance the taking by not increasing the share of the wealthy who already pay most of the tax, but to shift the some of the burden back on those who pay little or none of their tax on income. That is what is fair.
Spending too much is definitely the problem and should be drastically curtailed.