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Taylor said:It comes from an understanding that our current deficit situation isn't due to low taxes, but low numbers of workers paying taxes. If you want tax revenue, putting people back to work is priority #1 (and 2, 3, 4...). Taxing high earners doesn't put people back to work. Employment has remained flat since the end of the recession - jobs plummeted and we've essentially been holding steady at the low point ever since.
That's been the case the last two recessions...which tells me something. But that's another story; my point is that one cannot coherently hold that some class of people pays the largest share of total revenue, and that increasing taxes on that group would have no effect on the deficit. That's an inherently contradictory position unless the group is taxed at 100% of its wealth. If some group, by giving 30% of their income, foots over half the bill, increasing their taxes to 60% would double the revenue generated. That's simple math.
Please note: I am not advocating that tax rates increase to those proportions. I'm merely demonstrating a point, and it's a point which shows there is a logical inconsistency in the rhetoric coming from the right on the taxes issue.