Taxation Without Cessation

While the press was distracted by the misnamed “fiscal cliff,” we began the New Year with a 13-figure deficit and a 14-figure national debt—the result of today’s Americans borrowing vast sums of money and putting it on future Americans’ tab. The two parties offer rather different explanations for the cause of this unsustainable transfer of wealth from the young (and the unborn) to the old, which the “fiscal cliff” deal—at least on paper—only made worse.

President Obama and the Democrats suggest that federal tax revenues have fallen, while federal spending has generally proceeded at reasonable levels. Republicans suggest that tax revenues have more or less flatlined, while spending has skyrocketed. Neither explanation is fully accurate. In truth, taxes have risen—substantially. Yet these substantial increases in federal taxation have been dwarfed by an explosion in federal spending.

Read more: http://www.weeklystandard.com/author/jeffrey-h.-anderson