# Generally, what would you rather see more of to handle the government deficit?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generally-what-would-you-rather-see-more-of-to-handle-the-government-deficit/588761>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [July 12, 2011, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generally-what-would-you-rather-see-more-of-to-handle-the-government-deficit/588761 "2011-07-12T16:13:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 31

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**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generally-what-would-you-rather-see-more-of-to-handle-the-government-deficit/588761/31 "2011-07-13T03:44:34Z")

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> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#):
>
> Its nutty to raise taxes in an economic situation like this (or at least to make it the main focus rather than spending cuts).

Right, because the trillions of dollars sitting in corporate cash reserves right now are totally reviving the economy. Businesses aren’t expanding and creating products because there’s no demand - you could eliminate their taxes entirely and they’d mostly just sit in the cash until demand picked up.

And yeah, cutting spending at a time when the most major effect is a lack of demand, when everyone is sitting on their money and refusing to spend it, is definitely the way to get us out of this recession.

Well played.

> [@](#):
>
> Not to mention that arguably (I’m playing the Devil’s advocate here) that taxing based on income level violates the principle of equality before the law.

Haha, how do you remotely even make a case for this? Income is taxed by bracket, not by individual. Everyone equally pays a certain percentage through certain brackets. The idea of the rich being railroaded like, say, Jim Crow blacks because they’re taxed on their millions is something that I’d only expect to see in republican focus groups when they were testing oddball strategies to get people to vote against their own self interest.

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