The 2011 Sequel Of A Disastrous Debt Crisis Looms — And Republicans Couldn’t Be Happier Inside

It is stunning that no one in this whole debt ceiling debate has mentioned the real root of the problem: taxes. Democrats argue that Republicans are holding the debt limit hostage, much like a terrorist might, and we all know what Republicans love to say: We don’t negotiate with terrorists. That’s the difference between raising the debt ceiling — paying the restaurant staff — and insisting on spending cuts first — walking out of the restaurant without paying. The Trump tax cuts, for example, which included the reduction in the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, caused a 25% increase in the federal debt ― “the third-biggest increase, relative to the size of the economy, of any U.S. presidential administration.” Those who laud Donald Trump for his 2017 tax cuts have it backward; his most enduring legacy just might be the historic rise in the national debt due to those tax cuts. If you drop the corporate tax rate from 50% in 1960 to 21% today and if you drop the top tier tax rate of 90% in 1960 to 37% today, you can’t tell me that’s not going to create a problem with your revenue stream, resulting in an increasingly paralyzing debt.