Why does Obama want to tax us into oblivion to try to reach a budget agreement when spending is the problem?

There are two sides to a budget deficit: Too much spending and too little income. Increased taxes address the income side of the equation while decreased spending addresses the expense side. Both of these actions will, in theory, positively affect the deficit. Claiming that spending is the problem ignores the income side of the equation while claiming that low taxes are the problem ignores the expense side.

As an aside I feel I should point out that US citizens enjoy lower taxes than those of most industrialized nations. Canadians, for example, pay more taxes than Americans and we are far from oblivion.

Anathema as it is to a lot of people - "Tax and Spend" has historically always been a better mechanism for keeping an econony moving. Spending cuts alone tend to shrink the economy, remove people from the "tax take" and slow growth. What we had in a lot of the World - particularly in Europe - was "Borrow and Spend" - a policy that could only ever end in disaster.

I think the tax increases are a pre-requisite to dealing with entitlements, knowing that entitlement reform wouldn't happen anyway, thus allowing him to keep the tax increases.The MSM has duly spun this out as a failure by of the Republicans to deal with the deficit.John Boehner had no alternative but to hold the line on taxes and play Obama's game of Charades.The worrying thing is that for Obama deficit reduction means more taxes.