New York Yimes:  A Tax Bite Tailored to Help All, by Eduardo Porter:

What would happen if the government raised everybody’s taxes? …

To make ends meet, both parties agree, spending must be drastically cut. Under the White House budget proposal, discretionary spending on everything except the military is projected to shrink to its smallest share of the economy since the Eisenhower administration by the beginning of the next decade. Though he has resisted Republican demands to slash entitlements, President Obama remains willing to look for further savings from Medicare.

This is not, however, the only option we have. There is an alternative: raising more money from all taxpayers, including the middle class.

Nobody wants to talk about this. … Yet Americans would benefit from a discussion of this possibility. Higher taxes would undoubtedly stress many working families, especially after a decade of falling income for all but the most successful. But these families might nonetheless prefer paying more in taxes to losing government services they rely on. … Clearly, Americans value government services. We may welcome an opportunity to save them.

(Hat Tip: Mike Talbert.)