When Is a Tax Cut Really a Tax Hike? Usually

Rollbacks feel good in the short term. But factor in government spending, and the total tax bite is now at one of the highest levels in decades.

RHETORIC ABOUT TAX CUTS AND WHAT SEGMENT of society should get them is a predictable part of every presidential campaign.

As my colleague Jim McTague points out in the preceding story, that tradition is being upheld in the Obama-McCain clash. But while changes in tax rules are important because they can have a powerful short-term effect on an individual's finances, the modern history of U.S. taxation points to an unvarying truth: True long-term reductions don't exist for society as a whole. In fact, the total tax bite -- federal, state and local -- now stands at one of the highest levels in decades, despite the ostensible rollbacks of the Reagan and Bush years.

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