The following is a statement from Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:
The United States has hit a new milestone that no one will be proud of: our gross national debt just surpassed $33 trillion. Debt held by the public, meanwhile, recently surpassed $26 trillion. We are becoming numb to these huge numbers, but it doesn’t make them any less dangerous.
The Congressional Budget Office confirmed just last week that the underlying deficit is going to roughly double from last fiscal year to this one. Instead of hearing about solutions, we hear promises of which programs our leaders are unwilling to touch and which taxes they are unwilling to raise. That kind of talk is not only pandering, but it’s also downright irresponsible when we have a mess like this on our hands.
The Fiscal Responsibility Act was a step in the right direction, but getting the debt under control will require taking a serious look at health care, Social Security, and the tax code. If policymakers find it too difficult to do this under regular order, then they should put in place a bipartisan fiscal commission to propose solutions.
Policymakers need to be straight with the American public, and they need to come together on a plan to bring our debt under control.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
I agree with you completely. I am in the same boat. I barely pay any tax at all. It astounds me every year when I file.
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Try California. I recall state income tax was about $400 last year. Are you kidding me? Known as a high tax state, the total tax burden for most Californians is below the national average. Very, very progressive income tax, though. If you’re rich in California, you’re gonna pay.
But hey, you’re rich! And you’re in California !
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I don’t propose violence, but when all this debt blows up — and it will — Jan 6 is going to look like a Sunday picnic in the park!
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But will it really? Americans love to wail about problems that other countries solved 50 years ago.
If there is an eventual acute crisis and we have to taxes to levels in other developed countries, would it really blow up? Or would people just grumble online. I don’t see those other developed countries with higher taxes currently mired in constant violence. I just think America made a conscious choice to not pay enough taxes but still demand a high level of services for the government. For the most part it made American private citizens and corporations relatively more wealthy than other OECD countries, but there was a cost. A lot of Americans, including myself, are keenly aware that our tax burden is ridiculously low and are fine with the government raising taxes and proving better services.
There are also some options available to help decrease the impact, such as increased immigration (if Americans stick to traditional norms), which increases the tax base and keeps a better ratio of workers to retirees. Also ax law compliance, which costs tax payers an enormous amount of lost revenue currently due to the GOP efforts to hollow out the IRS.
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Eh?
You might be on the wrong blog. I believe the Republican plan is to reduce social services. I.e., tax the poor.
The devil is in the details, of course, but I agree with you. As do many Americans. The majority of voters (even Republicans) say tax the rich, but who defines rich? I say, start with me. Married filing jointly, no dependents… $100,000+ per year. Start with a ten percent surcharge.
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