Why taxes are going up.

Jay Cost is a conservative who blogs at the “RealClearPolitics” political site. Cost says America fails to deal with our gigantic yet rapidly growing deficit because

Deficit reducers always have to choose between two undesirable alternatives: cut spending or raise taxes. The problem with both tactics is that somebody loses while nobody really wins.

We can’t cut spending or raise taxes.

Tom Friedman, a moderate Democrat and New York Times columnist, recently focused on precisely the same dilemma:

My definition of broken is simple. It is a system in which Republicans will be voted out for doing the right thing (raising taxes when needed) and Democrats will be voted out for doing the right thing (cutting services when needed). When your political system punishes lawmakers for the doing the right things, it is broken.

So then, since Democrats hold power, it’s up to Republicans to supply the “heroes” by helping raise taxes.