Annie Lowrey

And now you're starting to see this huge movement that's really, really taking over in the states.

There's been now for several years, a real revolt against property taxes.

And it just feels like this ball is rolling down the hill now.

And we're really not talking about either tax simplification or even just raising enough tax revenue because we're running a really big deficit right now.

I worry that members of both parties really aren't incentivized to see it that way.

We were told by deficit hawks for decades now that if our deficits ran for long enough and our debt got big enough, we would be punished by the bond market.

And it just has not happened.

Nevertheless, we're currently running a deficit of roughly $1.5 to $1.8 trillion a year.

It's huge.

It's enormous.

And that's contributing to some of the economic problems that we're having right now.

Inflation comes directly downstream from that, right?

And I'm not talking about balancing the budget or eliminating the debt or paying for every little thing.

But it is true that at some point the balance is going to have to be different because our economy is changing as the population ages and as population growth slows down.

Absolutely.

And at least on the Democratic side, they have said that they will not raise taxes on anybody who could conceivably describe themselves as middle class, right?

People in the 97th, perhaps even the 98th income percentile.

And what that means is for Democrats that really want

limits the possible in terms of policymaking.

And then Republicans have shifted from sort of a we want small government and small deficits to we want big government and big deficits.