Rep. Dave Schweikert: Tax Increases Won’t Solve Debt Crisis

Lachlan Markay / July 20, 2011

Rep. Dave Schweikert (R-AZ) attempted on Tuesday to explain the debt debate — how the budget gap should be closed — in terms everyone can understand.

Schweikert noted on the House floor that proposals to deal with the deficit from President Obama and other liberals — such as ending tax breaks for corporate jets (though not the ones included in the stimulus), letting existing tax rates for higher income Americans expire, and exempting five oil companies from the domestic production tax credit — would get us about half an hour through the day.

Schweikert’s presentation was cheeky, but his point is a good one: tax hikes alone cannot balance the budget. Spending cuts and reforms to entitlement programs can. Therefore, any inclusion of tax hikes is less a deficit reduction strategy than an effort to secure support from the left.

But many on the left are couching their desire to raise taxes in the language of deficit reduction, demonstrating the extent to which, as Schweikert put it, “the left is living in a fantasy world.”