The poor like taxing the rich less than you would think

IN THE 1939 classic Western “Stagecoach”, a villainous banker with a bag of embezzled cash in his lap frets about the state of the American economy: “Our national debt is something shocking!” he complains. That year American public debt was just over two-fifths of GDP. This year, the IMF reckons, it will be just over 98%, rising to over 102% in 2012. Were he still around, the unscrupulous banker might have struggled to express his outrage, although he might have found solace in the fact that America’s August 2nd deal to increase the debt ceiling envisages $2.4 trillion in spending cuts but no tax hikes. This strikes many, both outside the United States and within it, as odd. A Democratic congressman called the debt deal a “sugar-coated Satan sandwich”.

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