Seventeen to One? Never Tell Me the Odds!

James Fallows knows what’s wrong with America’s finances:

It’s based on data from the Congressional Budget Office and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Its significance is not partisan (who’s “to blame” for the deficit) but intellectual. It demonstrates the utter incoherence of being very concerned about a structural federal deficit but ruling out of consideration the policy that was largest single contributor to that deficit, namely the Bush-era tax cuts.

Restoring the Clinton rates on “the rich” is already assumed in President Obama’s last budget, which would raise a trillion dollars in additional revenue over the next ten years. Also included in Obama’s budget over the next decade, is $17 trillion in additional debt.

Repeat after me: Taxes are not the problem here.

Hat tip, Gruber, who has, unfortunately, drunk the Kool-Aid on this one.