> For once I'd like to see a politician promise to raise taxes and use that revenue to fix things and actually win. Perverse financial incentives are ruining everything.
The 2000 election was a debate over whether to use the budget surplus to reduce taxes or increased government spending. The "reduce taxes" side narrowly won, and then a year later the death of 3000 people provoked us into increasing spending by several hundred billion doallars per year. That doesn't completely explain the current unsustainable deficit ($1.5T or about 5% of GDP !!), but it's a good chunk of it.
Of course the Bush tax cuts were largely retained under Obama with a bipartisan bill that made them permanent with no corresponding cut to spending.
The 2000 election was a debate over whether to use the budget surplus to reduce taxes or increased government spending. The "reduce taxes" side narrowly won, and then a year later the death of 3000 people provoked us into increasing spending by several hundred billion doallars per year. That doesn't completely explain the current unsustainable deficit ($1.5T or about 5% of GDP !!), but it's a good chunk of it.
Of course the Bush tax cuts were largely retained under Obama with a bipartisan bill that made them permanent with no corresponding cut to spending.