Brad DeLong has a great post on the tradeoffs we face in bringing the long-term budget into balance. Note that [raising revenue] is not optional. As the late Milton Friedman liked to put it: to spend is to tax. If the government buys things, it must get the money to buy them from somewhere. It can get the money from three places. It can tax. It can borrow--but then the borrowing has to be repaid with interest, and the more is borrowed the higher the interest and the worse the value the taxpayers ultimately get for their money when they are taxed to repay the borrowing. Or it can print the money and so inflate the currency--but that too is a tax, and an especially unfair, painful, and destructive one, as lots and lots of people victimized by inflation find their wealth doesn't buy what it used to and what they expected. As economists estimate, the long-term budget faces in a very significant fiscal gap that must be closed, and, as Brad plainly states, whoever tells you that increasing revenue is not necessary is selling you something. (h/t Matthew Yglesias) Image by Flickr user DennisSylvesterHurd used under a Creative Commons license