Howard Dean wants your money.

The only problem is — and this is initially going to seem like heresy from a progressive is — the truth is everybody needs to pay more taxes, not just the rich. And it’s a good start. But we’re not going to get out of this deficit problem unless we raise taxes across the board, to go back to what Bill Clinton had and his taxes. And if we don’t do that, the problem is the pressure is going to be on spending even more.

 
To talk about “restoring the old Clinton-era rates” is ludicrous for several reasons. 1)  the Clinton-era economy was stronger than our current one; 2) the Clinton rates did not have the burdens of taxation introduced by legislation since then; 3) state and local tax rates are significantly higher (and states have much higher debt levels which portend even greater increases), and 4) the enormously increased burden of Obama (and some Bush) era regulations which have the same effect of still further tax increases.

The “rich” already pay more taxes than anyone else. The idea that there are “tax cuts for the wealthy” is a myth. The Bush tax rates are what the taxpayers pay and have been paying for 10 years. Keeping the rates the same does not equate to a tax cut. Increasing the rates to the Clinton era rates is, in fact, a tax increase.
 
These current tax margins have been built into the economic market for a decade. Our economy – for better or for worse – has operated on that particular set of data.  Increasing of the rates would have the effect on the marketplace and in the business world of immediately reducing the value (by reducing the after-tax cash flow) of all existing investments, and, by reducing the expected return of prospective investments, will eliminate many of them (and the jobs that would have gone with them).
 
Referring to a continuation of the same law is not a tax break, and it’s not something that needs to be “fixed”. Just because the liberals have not accepted it doesn’t mean it’s not the law.  Increasing tax rates on any segment of taxpayers, especially the segment responsible for nearly all job creation, is irresponsible. The truth is, the government needs massive spending reduction first.