Are Higher Taxes in Our Future?

Tax day, April 15^th, is upon us now.

It’s never fun preparing or paying. But it’s the price we pay for all we share.

That price may be going up - substantially and soon.

America’s deficit has grown so large that talk of higher taxes is all over the place now. Letting old tax cuts lapse. Bringing in new taxes. Maybe a “V.A.T.” – a “value added tax – on everything we buy.

Former Fed chief under Ronald Reagan, Paul Volcker, is saying if we need it, we need it.

This Hour, On Point:  Are we going to have to pay up to bring down the deficit? Are higher American taxes now inevitable?Guests:

Bill Frenzel, scholar of economic studies at the Brookings Institution and a former Republican Congressman from Minnesota. He advised President George W. Bush on social security and taxes.

Alan Auerbach, professor of economics and law – and director of the Burch Center for Tax Policy and Public Finance – at U.C. Berkeley. He served as deputy chief-of-staff of the U.S. Joint Committee on Taxation in 1992.