Daily Events...
Fridays with Erick Erickson
Hold onto your wallet  
November 6, 2011 

Hold on to your wallet. Republicans and Democrats are starting to talk about a bipartisan budget deal from the Super Committee that never should have been empowered. Speaker Boehner is saying there won’t be tax increases, but there will be revenue increases. No one can quite explain how revenue increases if taxes do not increase. 

One rumor is that they will flatten the tax code, but wipe out so many deductions that people will wind up paying even more in taxes. 

What remains to be seen is if the Super Committee will engage in a grand bargain to reshape the tax code and entitlements. If they do, President Obama cannot exactly run against a do-nothing congress, and it also takes taxes and entitlements off the table for the campaign cycle, too. 

So the odds are the President will oppose a grand bargain. But, Republicans have shown increasing spinelessness about tax increases... errrr... revenue increases. So we probably won’t get much in terms of real reform, but will get more money for Washington to spend. 

The only thing Americans can do is be vigilant and encourage primaries against Republicans with candidates who understand the tax code should be neither about fostering growth or enacting preferred social policies. The tax code should be about raising revenue to fund the federal government through policies that take as little private property from the American people as possible. 

—Erick Erickson 

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