An excellent new study from the nonpartisan Brookings Institution provides an ultra-sobering view of the potential tax increase U.S. families face in taming the runaway debt and deficits crisis that’s been near-roundly ignored in Congress and the White House. We all know the hit to either incomes, shopping tabs, social programs, or a blend of all needs to be huge—though the towering size of the numbers found in the report still deliver a gut punch. The revelation that rocked this writer: On the tax side, the sole solutions are sweeping increases across virtually all income levels. Squeezing extra revenue from the rich won’t get close to getting the job done.
The paper—prepared by Jessica Riedl, Brookings budget and tax fellow—runs 132 pages, and primarily comprises highly revealing charts and tables. It contains a wealth of data that show, for example, how much worse our budget shortfalls and long-term borrowing become, versus the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) numbers required to follow only current law, if tax reductions in the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) don’t sunset and get extended. That scenario’s so likely that it forms a better, and more depressing, baseline. Other decks spotlight that we’re running the biggest budget deficits in the OECD, and that debt per household stands around “you owe another mortgage you don’t know about” level of $235,000.
