Reply #9: Another point: look at the graph above of the Clinton year's... [View All]

[Brotherjohn]

...and what happened to the deficit.

Now, Clinton raised taxes, and it did NOT damage the economy and therefore result in drops in revenue as conservatives argued it would. They even argued, before Al Gore cast the tie-breaking vote to pass Clinton's first budget, that this budget would bankrupt the government.

This budget, in fact, lowered the annual deficit from $300B to $110B... and all by itself, before Repubs in Congress ever passed a single spending bill after they gained control of Congress.

Now, with Bush's massive tax cuts, the deficit is balooning... and again, the government admits that tax cuts are the biggest single contributor to this.

So tax cuts DO affect the deficit. Your analogy of the "elephant in the room" applies more to the tax cuts than anything else.