No reasonable person can doubt that the US must eventually raise taxes. The country is running an unsustainable budget deficit. Its tax take, measured as a share of gross domestic product, is the lowest in the OECD. The 1990s suggest the US can raise revenues without damaging growth. Other countries have also managed similar feats. Sweden, for example, which collects 53 per cent of GDP in taxes, has grown faster over the past decade than the US, which collects 32 per cent, counting state and local government. From all this it follows that a distressingly large slice of the Republican party is unreasonable.
任何一位頭腦清醒的人都不會懷疑美國最終必須增稅。美國目前的預算赤字已難以爲繼，而其稅收與國內生產毛額(GDP)之比，在經合組織(OECD)國家當中是最低的。上世紀90年代的歷史表明，美國可以在不損及成長的情況下增加稅收。其他國家也有類似的成功經驗。以瑞典爲例，該國稅收爲GDP的53%，在過去10年裏成長快於美國。而把州和地方政府計算在內，美國稅收僅爲GDP的32%。以上這些事實表明，很不幸地，共和黨中有很大一部分人的頭腦不夠清醒。