Private sector economists say raise taxes to help fix deficit

Business economists seem pretty darned unified when it comes to what's necessary to bring the deficit in line.

Some three-quarters of economists who do forecasting for the private sector say tax revenue should rise as part of efforts to tame unsustainable budget deficits, according to the survey released Monday by the National Association for Business Economics (NABE).

By contrast, 19 percent said tax reform should be done in a "revenue-neutral" way, and 5 percent said reforms should reduce tax revenues. About 250 business economists participated in the NABE survey.[...]

[T]he economists in the NABE survey, conducted the two weeks just before Washington's Aug. 2 achievement of a debt deal, took a more complex and centrist view of the nation's fiscal problems. While many of them favored spending cuts, a majority argued that the challenge of federal deficits stems from low tax revenue and the recession's after-effects, as well as from untamed spending habits.

Being reality-based, it's hard to expect that the GOP will be convinced. Nonetheless, the people who are paid to think about this stuff might be worth listening to; more so than, say, the people who wear funny hats and demand government keep its hands off their Medicare.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/ywYQz2Hjnuw/-Private-sector-economists-say-raise-taxes-to-help-fix-deficit

how to get involved in politics download data politic senate appropriations political forums