Suck It Up— We Need Taxes

Local governments across America are cutting back on basic services that virtually everyone needs—roads are being broken down into gravel, teachers laid off, and, in at least one town, the street lights literally turned off—because they have no money and can’t stomach a tax increase. The situation infuriates Paul Krugman of the New York Times. The federal government could help, but instead, Republicans insist we reduce the deficit, then clamor to preserve tax cuts for the uber-rich.

“Given the choice between asking the richest 2% or so of Americans to go back to paying the tax rates they paid during the Clinton-era boom, or allowing the nation’s foundations to crumble, they’re choosing the latter,” Krugman fumes. The whole thing is “the logical consequence of three decades of anti-government rhetoric.” Republicans pretend they’re rooting out waste, but instead, they've crippled basic services. They've left America "on the unlit, unpaved road to nowhere.” (More Paul Krugman stories.)