Ira Stoll: Obama Is Wrong About the Need to Raise Taxes
With a March 1 deadline looming for the imposition of the automatic spending cuts known as the sequester, President Obama and his allies in the press are stepping up their campaign for additional tax increases on the rich. Obama said over the weekend that his plan "asks more of the wealthiest Americans," and he said it looks like Republicans are "prepared to inflict more pain on the middle class because they refuse to ask anything more of those at the very top." The president's allies at The New York Times issued an editorial under the headline "Why Taxes Have to Go Up," insisting, "To reduce the deficit in a weak economy, new taxes on high-income Americans are a matter of necessity and fairness."
Ira Stoll offers five reasons why Obama and the Times are wrong about the need to raise taxes.