No Raising Taxes meme hurts the U.S.

Republicans claim they get this idea of not raising taxes from Ronald Reagan. But Reagan raised taxes four times.  They claim taxing us is taking "our money" from us.  Well duh. That's why taxes are whined about always and forever. 

The better question is, what are we getting from our taxes?  If it's useful and good things, with little waste, then we should be ecstatic.  If not, then we try to cut out the waste.  But meanwhile, we have health care (most of us now, anyway), good roads, military protection, a court system, and on and on.  These are things that citizens collectively do better than private business.

So now we've had a recession and our governmental income is way less than our expenses.  The Republican meme pushes them to avoid tax increases, so they are planning to cut things that are not wasteful. Like tsunami warning systems, for a current example. 

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/02/tax_breaks_infographic.html

This is a nice infographic that shows where we could get more governmental income without hurting the economy, and save some important programs.

If you put a child on a diet, that's different than starving him. Starving him brings damage, perhaps permanent damage.  If you starve some programs, you might permanently damage or destroy them. Let's not act like cavemen and just whack away with an axe. Let's consider what is worth paying for, and pay for it.