Lowry's good. But the bloc she doesn't mention here are people like me, who normally take pride in contributing but who are desolate and enraged at funding a rogue state run by psychopaths www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
Earlier this month, the IRS finished collecting 2025 taxes, taking in an estimated $5.2 trillion from businesses and households. But Congress is spending $7 trillion a year, pumping out as much fiscal stimulus now as it did during the Great Recession. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
Democrats embracing the Buffet Rule by cutting everyone’s taxes is certainly something. But if the GOP is relentlessly spending on tax cuts for their preferred oligarchic groups then I guess it’s a suicide pact.
I’m old enough to remember working for clients who were fifty years older than me and many of them were grateful to pay taxes. They said it meant that they were prospering and they were grateful to be here in America. The country needed support and revenue.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
Yes, taxation in the US is broken but - more vitally - the perceived value of good governance is almost zero. Biden built a thriving economy after disaster, became despised, and Trump got elected.
We have to elect people able and interested in governing before we can solve taxation.
"Taxes are what we pay for civilized society"
- Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Dissent in Compañía General de Tabacos de Filipinas v. Collector of Internal Revenue (1927)
Annie Lowrey:
“No wonder. For 50 years, Republicans have made taxes out to be the enemy of the government and the governed alike, passing cuts that have increased inequality and spilled red ink.”
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
You cant spend crazy amounts on wars and ICE and lower taxes at the same time. Thats kicking the can forward.,https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/04/tax-revolt-irs/686926/?gift=TAtT0XqaHkGx-pGozxDyosOOFG9S3P-qgkq6AnA8eOc
So Nobody Is Going to Pay Taxes Now? www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
Uncle Sam is going to need to raise some money. And that’s going to be hard to do if Americans see their tax returns not as a fair contribution to the greater good but as a punishment or an injustice.
The MAGAs are going for a federal sales tax, fees on energy use, anything that makes the poor pay to let the wealthy go without taxes.
Democrats will consider it.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
"For Democrats, today’s anti-tax ideology will limit the scope of the possible...For Republicans, anti-tax ideology is endangering their political fortunes right now." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
Members of both parties are egging on a nationwide tax revolt—and if the economy were to tank, the country could end up with a toxic combination of widespread joblessness and rampant inflation, @AnnieLowrey argues. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...