3Trillion Reasons Not to Raise Taxes Again!

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3 Trillion Reasons Not to Raise Taxes Again 10/30/2013 Do you know how much President Obama has raised taxes? Oh, by about $3 trillion. In a new paper, Heritage expert Curtis Dubay reminds us: President Obama has already raised taxes substantially twice—first as part of Obamacare and then as part of the “fiscal cliff” deal earlier this year. Together, those increases raised taxes by more than $1.3 trillion over 10 years. Including the payroll tax increase that was also part of the fiscal cliff deal, taxes have risen by almost $3 trillion during President Obama’s tenure. That’s right: Taxes have risen by almost $3 trillion during President Obama’s tenure. >>> See the 13 tax increases just in 2013 Today, a special congressional committee will meet to start hashing out what the next budget could look like—and members of this committee will face a lot of pressure to raise taxes again. They should not. Why stop now? Dubay gives three reasons. Raising taxes yet again:  1) would further burden an already sluggish economy; 2) would not fix the real Washington problem of overspending; and 3) is unnecessary. Creating a budget is deciding how to spend taxpayers’ money. And spending is where the focus should be. As Dubay says, budgeting is exactly the time where a conversation about desperately needed entitlement reform should happen. Congress and the President have long known that overspending will load future generations with debt that will greatly reduce their standards of living, but they have continually refused to act. About the only way to force them to address the issue is when the law requires them to pass a budget each fiscal year (the Senate even ignored this requirement for three years) or periodically raise the debt limit. The need to set a budget has led to this conference and has created a rare opportunity for Congress to focus on spending. Beware of the old phrases “closing loopholes” and “raising revenues”—tax hikes by any other name are just as devastating. We need tax reform, but first, we need spending restraint. Read the Morning Bell and more en español every day at Heritage Libertad. Quick Hits: Did you know: Residents of some New Jersey and New York towns still have not returned homeafter being displaced by Hurricane Sandy. Get ready for Bob Woodward’s semi-triumphant return to The Washington Post. Surprise: It turns out the Obama Administration knew for “at least three years” that millions could not keep their health insurance. Read what happened when the President’s 2012 campaign manager complained about customer service on Twitter. Questions are being raised about the connection between First Lady Michelle Obama and a top executive at the company that built Healthcare.gov.