Paul Krugman Thinks Government Owns All Your Income

Paul Krugman thinks the government owns all of your income:

We need to pinch pennies these days. Don’t you know we have a budget deficit? For months that has been the word from Republicans and conservative Democrats, who have rejected every suggestion that we do more to avoid deep cuts in public services and help the ailing economy.

But these same politicians are eager to cut checks averaging $3 million each to the richest 120,000 people in the country.

What — you haven’t heard about this proposal? Actually, you have: I’m talking about demands that we make all of the Bush tax cuts, not just those for the middle class, permanent.

Some background: Back in 2001, when the first set of Bush tax cuts was rammed through Congress, the legislation was written with a peculiar provision — namely, that the whole thing would expire, with tax rates reverting to 2000 levels, on the last day of 2010.

Paul Krugman thinks today's existing tax rates is just the federal government letting you keep Bush's lower tax rates. Maybe, it's time to repeal the Bush era spending levels. But, you'd never hear that from Paul Krugman: he likes Pell grants and student loans.