Are tax hikes the answer to the federal budget?

Walter Rubel of the Sun News, while acknowledging some realities of the current budget situation, unfairly takes Rep. Pearce to task for not wishing to raise taxes in this recent opinion piece. I understand the desire by many in the media to get fiscal conservatives to agree to tax hikes, but the fact is that while tax revenue has been stagnant over the past few years — due to a combination of the recession and the Bush tax cuts — it is spending, not taxes that have caused the budget situation to spiral out of control.

In fact, as the folks at Reason clearly show, the federal government has collected just about 19 percent of GDP over the span of several decades and several tax hikes and tax cuts. It is highly doubtful that the feds could possibly raise taxes to levels high enough to generate the revenue necessary to increase revenues as so many in the media and on the left would like to see.

The reality is that tax reform is in order and conservatives will agree to it if it closes loopholes and rationalizes our tax system, but avoiding a fiscal collapse really is a spending problem.