Do We Really Need to Raise Taxes to Close the Deficit?  By Megan
McArdle  I think the first part of this James Capretta analysis
cited by Reihan is basically right:   The problem is they don't
have the guts to say so in public. They know that's the surest
way to permanent minority status. And so they are hoping for a
more indirect route to their goal, using guile to lure gullible
Republicans (see here) into agreeing to their approach without
ever having to sell it to a tax-averse electorate.  The Ryan
plan blows this kind of plotting by Democrats to smithereens.
There's no tax increase in the Ryan plan, and there's no debt
crisis. What's required is far-reaching entitlement reform and
serious spending discipline. By staking out that position, Ryan
and his comrades have improved their leverage immensely. There's
no need to agree to tax hikes to solve the budget problem.
What's needed is for Democrats to get serious about spending
reform, as Ryan has.  Democrats have been hoping that some way,
somehow, they wer