From Gary North:
I begin with North’s law for dealing with political Keynesians: “When you’ve got them by the boondoggles, their hearts and minds will follow.”
On January 1, 2013, federal taxes will go up. There is no way around this. One way or the other, federal taxes will go up.
There are some questions associated with this forecast. First, which taxes will be going up? Second, who will wind up paying most of these taxes? Third, what effect will this tax increase have on the American economy?
Obama is beginning to sound as though he is ready to compromise in some way with John Boehner over some kind of substitute tax program. Boehner is making similar noises with respect to his willingness to compromise in some way to work out a deal with Obama. The problem is simple to state: (1) Boehner has said that he will not accept any tax revision that places additional taxes on the wealthy, and (2) Obama is philosophically opposed to anything that is going to raise taxes on the poor.
