Tax Lawyer's Blog

Earlier this week CNBC’s Erin Burnett asked Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s a question about whether tax increases would be required to fund healthcare reform and reduce the deficit.

Here’s the exchange according to the Washington Post:

Asked by Burnett: “Will taxes go up?”, Geithner began, “I want to do it this way…I want to do it carefully…”

He went on to say:

“Right now, if you’re worried as most Americans should be about how we’re going to afford these things in the future, how we’re going to get back to living within their means, the most important thing now we can do is to get this economy back to where we’re growing. Where firms are investing again, people are creating jobs again.

And when we do that, the world needs to understand — Americans need to understand — we’re going to bring our deficits down. And that means we’re going to have to bring our commitments and resources into balance. And it’s going to require we do difficult things.

Again, I think most Americans understand, if we don’t do that, we’re going to face a risk of slower growth, higher unemployment, darker future. And that’s not something we can afford to do.”

Today on Meet the Press Ms. Burnett said that Giethner had also reiterated President Obama’s pledge that taxes will be not be raised for 95% of Americans but only for the top 5% of income earners.

Burnett pointed out, however, that even if you taxed the top 5% at a 100% rate it still wouldn’t be enough to reduce the deficit.

This, of course, means a middle-class tax hike.

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