And the case is so easy to make that the problem is government spending and that the higher "marginal tax rates" are not equal to higher "revenues" - which is simply the euphemism Progressives/liberals/Democrats adopted to de-emphasize and hide the word "taxes" from the taxpayers.
We had essentially the same "Bush tax cut" rates since 2001. These rates during Bush administration (and mostly Republican Congress) produced the government revenues of approximately 19% of GDP while the government spending was about 21% of GDP, leaving the annual deficit of approximately 2% of GDP with the economy growing at 3.5-4+ percent.
Under Obama and mostly Democratic Congress, these exact same "Bush tax rates" produced government revenues of less than 16% of GDP while government spending shot up to over 24% of GDP, producing a deficit of more than 8% of GDP with the economy struggling to barely reach 2% growth.
Same tax rates on the people Obama and democrats call "rich" and all others, and yet dramatically different picture for the "revenues" and the spending.
Should not be difficult to put it on the charts and show it to people Ross Perot-style, it becomes very easy to understand which side of the equation has the credibility problem.
And according to Heritage, based on OMB and CBO estimates, higher taxes on the so-called "rich" alone won't even produce much "revenue" from them even discounting dynamic scoring and behaviour changes which will reduce that revenue even further and discounting the higher government spending to support displaced / laid-off workers.
Tax Shock (jpg) - (Vast majority of taxes will come from incomes below "top 2%" and Alternative Minimum Tax, rollback of 2% cut in payroll tax, eollback of "stimulus" tax cuts and from new ObamaCare taxes.)
“And the case is so easy to make that the problem is government spending...”
After watching the election and listening to the “average” voter I don’t think polls mean “jack”.
If Boehner was smart he’d simply say no and let Obama and the dems scream and holler. I mean really, who cares, the country thinks he sucks anyway, he has all the power to do the “right thing”, with no backlash.
If the Reps are wrong they will pay for it but so will Obama to a larger extent. If they are right the economy will improve and Obama’s dependency state will weaken.
It’s a win-win IF they do the right thing, and reduce the deficit, and get the fiscal house in order. Next start passing laws to rein in government regulators.