White House Asking CEO's For Permission To Raise Their Taxes

This article describes the efforts by the White House to enlist the support of top business executives in the battle over tax reform.  Some who support higher taxes believe that it is the only way to get support from the administration to cut entitlement benefits.  A letter from the Business Roundtable, which is an organization of F500 CEO's,  suggested that entitlement cuts should be a multiple of the increase in taxes.  That has been the GOP position all along.  The president has taken the position that tax increases should be a multiple of spending cuts.  Its hard to see what he has gained by seeking permission from CEO's to let the Bush tax cuts expire for them expire under current.  The Bush tax bill was passed by Congress, under the condition that they be temporary, precisely because of their impact on budget deficits. Letting the tax cuts expire is now being portrayed as a major increase in taxes.

Libertarians, who claim that government is a threat to their personal liberty, should be encouraged by the White House's effort to seek permission from CEO's to raise their taxes.  This is a far cry from the tyranny that they scream and holler about.  When FDR signed the income tax bill during the Great Depression, he said that it was for the newspaper tycoon Randolph Hearst, whose papers opposed the income tax bill.