{"id":7447,"date":"2013-03-05T10:28:41","date_gmt":"2013-03-05T15:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=7447"},"modified":"2013-03-05T11:10:22","modified_gmt":"2013-03-05T16:10:22","slug":"the-new-american-reality-that-conservative-republicans-must-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2013\/03\/05\/the-new-american-reality-that-conservative-republicans-must-face\/","title":{"rendered":"The new American reality that conservative Republicans must face"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As I’ve written here before, I think Republicans are mostly in the right when they suggest that Federal tax rates are already in line with the “normal” range of revenue over the last half century.<\/p>\n

This chart, from the liberal website Crooks and Liars<\/a>, shows the trajectory of tax rates as a percentage of GDP.<\/p>\n

Yes, revenues have dipped below “mean” tax rates for a few of the years since 2002, and they plunged during the Great Recession.<\/p>\n

But the more dramatic and pervasive trend is the surge of spending above historic norms that began in 2008.<\/p>\n

The logical conclusion here is that spending must come down and tax rates must be stabilized, and perhaps even lowered, if we are to avoid a significantly higher long-term burden on taxpayers than Americans have accepted.<\/p>\n

What appears obvious in the abstract, however, is confounded by a very different reality on the ground.\u00a0 The truth is that the American economic landscape has shifted tectonically.<\/p>\n

The truth is that our citizens rely on government more and more, not because we’re lazy or ideologically confused or charmed by socialism, but because hard work in our country no longer produces a stable, secure livelihood.<\/p>\n

This video (which Ellen Rocco shared earlier in the week) illustrates dramatically the growing income disparity in the US, which expanded dismally during the last four decades.<\/p>\n