Well, maybe not quite. More like Understanding-The-Government's-Intertemporal-Budget-Constraint Max. Max Sawicky, in a post noted at Angry Bear and Brad DeLong, makes the eminently sensible point that over time the present-value of it's expenditures must be matched by the the present-value of it's revenues. Hence,
Republican control of the White House and Congress has yielded trillions in tax increases since January of 2001. How can this be? Simple. When you spend more, and when you pass laws that commit the government to spending more in the future, you increase taxes, sooner or later.
Can't argue with that, and it is a reminder that is well worth repeating (again and again). The observation, of course, is a purely a statement of fact. In and of itself, the fact is neither good nor bad.
Max clearly thinks its bad. As I am slated to square off against Max on a different issue in the near future, I guess I'll get warmed up by playing Devil's Advocate -- I'm sure Max and pgl think that is an apropos designation -- on this one. To Max's first point:
Exhibit A in the Hall of Bush Tax Hikes is of course the Medicare drug benefit. The cost of this over the indefinite future is $23.5 trillion-with-a-T (of which $18.2T is not matched by any dedicated financing source -- p. 112).
How might one counter? I think by pointing out that