Two weeks ago, federal budget talks stalled as Republicans walked out of a meeting with Vice President Joe Biden. Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) flatly stated "tax hikes are off the table" when it came to budget talks.
The GOP blinked first after President Obama and his aides stared down Republicans in a contest to see who gives in first.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) stated July 6 that a tax hike on one part of the economy would have to be offset by tax cuts somewhere else. It's still a promising sign that debt talks can move forward before an August 2, 2011, deadline to raise the debt ceiling of the United States or face more economic problems.
Without raising the debt ceiling, the United States defaults on its loans and obligations. If that happens, the credit rating of the United States government falls, it would cost too much money to borrow more debt and countries wouldn't want to buy U.S. bonds any more.
The United States economy would be crippled by a debt default. Unfortunately, lawmakers are in a bind much like they were when the recession started in 2008. If they do nothing, it's far worse than taking a short-term hit.
The United States still has to come up with money to pay for things somehow. Whether through spending cuts, increasing taxes or both, raising the debt ceiling only postpones the problem. Massive budget deficits must be made up somehow.
Although solving the budget crisis still has a lot of work to do, the GOP caved in first. They don't want to erase any gains they made in the 2010 election. The status quo of compromise between the two parties will have to be good enough for both of them. The Democrats will have to give a little and make deeper cuts than they want to. The Republicans will simply have to raise taxes on something.
Even Obama's private-sector experts he assembled to deal with the budget difficulty said what is needed is a combination of more taxes and less spending. As with the late-term deals cut in December of 2010, These budget discussions won't be any different. Obama caved in to Republican demands to keep tax cuts for the rich . The Republicans, in turn, kept unemployment benefits for people who don't have work thanks to the recession that occurred on the GOP's watch.
What needs to happen is a tax increase that will affect everyone, rich and poor alike. Raising taxes on cigarettes, alcohol and gasoline only have minimal impacts on the individual consumer as prices would go up only a little bit. Over the long term and millions of purchases later, the tax increases add up.
It's only fair that if both sides compromise and everyone has to share a burden in the budget crisis that all Americans should pay more taxes on things we use.
William Browning is a research librarian specializing in U.S. politics. Born in St. Louis, Browning is active in local politics and served as a campaign volunteer for President Barack Obama and Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill .
