A follow-up to the item here the other day about the Bloomberg news editorial calling for tax increases to balance the federal deficit, while Mr. Bloomberg himself has opposed tax increases to close the city and state deficits and also opposed the editorial's suggestion of raising taxes on the so-called rich: Now Mr. Bloomberg seems to be suggesting tax increases for everyone. The New York Post reports:
Taxes should be increased for everyone -- not just the rich -- to break the logjam in Washington over how to reduce the nation's towering deficit, Mayor Michael Bloomberg declared today.
"The easiest thing to do, the fairest thing to do, is a small percentage on everything," the mayor recommended on his weekly WOR radio show.
"So if you want to raise taxes, don't pick one class of people and say, 'I think they have too much money,' or 'I don't think they have enough money' or whatever. Raise everybody's taxes 1 or 2 percent, whatever it was."
It's hard for me to understand exactly what Mr. Bloomberg is talking about, but he may be talking about ending the two percentage point reduction in payroll taxes that is in effect for 2011. A different Bloomberg news editorial had already described the scheduled expiration of that payroll tax reduction as something that could hamper the economic recovery, so the mayor is yet again saying one thing and publishing editorials that say another. As I've said before, there's a distinct possibility that Mr. Bloomberg is going to give this whole editorial-writing operation the Cathie Black-Stephen Goldsmith treatment and abruptly shut it down. If that does happen, there's a distinct possibility that it would happen at about the same time Steven Rattner's two-year bar on "associating with any investment adviser or broker-dealer" expires, which will be November 2012.
