I hate taxes more than anyone, but other policies matter as well, so if I had the choice of replacing current government policies with the ones that existed at the end of the Clinton years, I would gladly make that trade. Yes, it would mean higher tax rates, but it also would mean slashing government spending from 24 percent of GDP down to 18 percent of GDP. It would mean no sleazy TARP bailout, no Sarbanes-Oxley red tape, and no added power and authority for the federal government.
This is the argument that I made in this interview on CNBC, though my opponent tried to do his version of the Brezhnev Doctrine (what’s mine is mine, what’s yours is negotiable), so I concluded the interview by stating that in the real world higher taxes are completely unacceptable.
[…] I’ve even said on national TV that I would go back to Bill Clinton’s tax policy if I could undo all the reckless spending […]
[…] track record on spending was especially good. Indeed, I even admitted on TV that I would accept Clinton-era tax rates if we could unravel all the new spending and intervention […]
[…] the Clinton-GOP Congress years were so good that I even offered, during a debate on national TV, to go back to Clinton’s higher tax rates if it meant we also could undo all the reckless […]
[…] the Clinton-GOP Congress years were so good that I even offered, during a debate on national TV, to go back to Clinton’s higher tax rates if it meant we also could undo all the reckless […]
[…] the Clinton-GOP Congress years were so good that I even offered, during a debate on national TV, to go back to Clinton’s higher tax rates if it meant we also could undo all the reckless […]
That is a false dichotomy. A provable rule of government is, if you give them money, they will spend it. They will of course spend money even when they don’t have it, but granting them any additional revenue is tantamount to locking Bill Clinton in the dressing room of the Miss USA pageant. Someone is gonna get screwed……
That is the logical compromise, but so far the only thing I’ve been hearing about is raising taxes on the top 2%. I haven’t heard a peep from the president or the dems in congress about any spending cuts.