The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has finally made the obvious official in its latest report on the federal budget and the country’s economic outlook. The US economy is recovering more slowly than at any time since 1960. Because you get less of what you tax, and because this administration managed to tax the heck out of employers when it had a compliant Congress, 2014 is expected to be the sixth consecutive year with unemployment above 7 ½ percent, the longest such period in the past 70 years.
While the report blathers on about how the deficit would be lower if taxes were higher, the following graph (from page 20) makes it crystal clear that revenues are not the problem. In 2013, revenues will be an above average 2.9 trillion. This would be enough to roughly balance the federal budget if a) the Obama Administration would produce a budget, b) stop spending our money on things like exploding electric cars and bridges to nowhere, and c) trim federal outlays to 2007 levels.
