We have a massive deficit and looming debt ceiling. It is not fair to leave this mess to future generations. Given the current state of our economy, significant cuts to domestic spending would be disastrous and might undo the limited progress we have made coming out of the recession. And yet, raising taxes could also undo economic progress, could it not?

Raising taxes seems like a recipe for economic disaster that could be almost as bad as deep cuts to domestic spending. At least, it seems that way if we forget that not all taxes work the same way.

What progressives are proposing involves repealing tax cuts given to the wealthiest Americans (i.e., the millionaires and billionaires) and the oil companies. Nobody else's taxes would be affected, and the oil companies are raking in record profits. This would significantly reduce the deficit without jeopardizing economic recovery.

While it is true that some sort of across-the-board tax increase on all Americans would hurt the recovery, nobody has proposed such a thing. What progressive Democrats have proposed involves taxing the rich, and this is exactly what we need to do.

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