Anyone who thinks that raising taxes is going to help reduce our massive government deficit needs to read this article in today Wall Street Journal. It reports research that shows that increases in tax revenue were ALWAYS accompanied by slightly larger increases in spending. top line summary:



Using standard statistical analyses that introduce variables to control for businesscycle fluctuations, wars and inflation, we found that over the entire post World War II era through 2009 each dollar of new tax revenue was associated with $1.17 of new spending. Politicians spend the money as fast as it comes inand a little bit more. the taxpayers) uggs on sale and who are arguing that we need to raise government revenue to unprecendented levels relative to GDP are lying. Plain and simple. The lack of natural market disciplines on government spending, the types of discipline that eventually force unprofitable companies to either rethink and restructure (think everything from the Lou Gerstner rethink at IBM to the belttightening that millions of small businesses have done over the past 2 or 3 years), means that government will endlessly expand if left to its own devices. It may temporarily discipline itself, but as soon as the electorate looks elsewhere ugg boots clearance it will revert to expansion and spending. need to devise policy mechanisms that effect the same types of continuous review and evaluation on government programs as are inflicted on businesses by the "creative destruction" of markets. There is a reason only a handful of Fortune 500 companies from 1950 or 1960 are still on the list. Yet government programs, once established, never seem to shrink or disappear even when the original reasons for the program are gone. We need to start blowing up entire government agencies that were established to meet the problems of the 1920s and 1930s and 1960s and see if anyone other than the civil servants who work in those agencies miss them. If they do we can figure out what needs to be put in place to meet the needs of today world. We need to rethink our government safety nets and entitlement programs to put them on longterm sound financial foundations. will eventually "go native" once they spend a few years inside the beltway unless we hold them accountable and not let them bribe us with our own money:



The grand bargain so many in Washington yearn fortax increases coupled with spending cutsis a fool errand. Our research confirms what the late economist Milton Friedman said of Congress many years ago: "Politicians will always spend every penny of tax raised and whatever else they can get away with."



Just got back from voting. Representative, and two state legislative posts) and one state constitutional amendment on the ballot. The two state races were uncontested so it meant only two real decisions to make. Not like the situation that voters in so many districts find themselves confronted with. Nonetheless it felt good to vote. It an essential part of all of our roles as citizens in a democratic society to vote for those who are going to represent us and to hold our elected representatives accountable for the votes they take while in office. I think maybe a lot of us have been backsliding a bit on our responsibility but I think this election that won be so much the case. hope you all voted too. At the end of the day, we may disagree on who should represent us but we all need to let our voices be heard.