Taxed to Death

The nation’s debt continues to climb as the fiscal drama in Washington drags on. After remaining relatively silent, President Obama announced his deficit-reduction plan yesterday, calling for spending cuts and higher taxes. But will raising taxes help reduce America’s growing budget gap? Michael Reagan, son of President Ronald Reagan and author of “The New Reagan Revolution,” joined Varney & Co. this morning to weigh in on the national debate, and he thinks President Obama can learn a thing or two from his father.

“All you have to do is look at the numbers coming into the Treasury when [Ronald Reagan] took office, to where the money was when he left office,” said Reagan. “There was a lot more money. He doubled the money coming into Washington, D.C."

President Obama argues the opposite, saying that if the current tax cuts remain, less money will come in to the government. He is focused on ending the Bush-era tax cuts, raising taxes for families making more than $250,000 per year.

“It’s not about millionaires and billionaires,” said Reagan. “This is about families making $250,000 or $300,000 per year. Why? Because that’s where the bulk of the money really is.”

And Michael Reagan says that raising taxes won’t address the necessary issues bankrupting America. In the end, it will just kick the can down the road.

“Even the IRS came out and said if you took all the people making over $100,000 a year and taxed every bit of their taxable income, you’d only come up with about $1.5T which wouldn’t cover the deficit for this year,” said Reagan. “It is bogus what the President is selling. It just gives you a larger deficit going into years to come that’s going to be put on the back of yet another president, another congress and our grandchildren.”