Happy Tax Day

Today is the last day for filing 2011 taxes with the IRS. Sunday's New York Times had an interesting article on taxes, including post-war history of taxes, tax rates and the economy. It can be found here. It also deals with the impending increase in taxes set for January 1 and what the effects might be. One could hope that Congress and the president would deal with the issue prior to the end of the year, but given this is an election year, that is unlikely.

It would also be nice if our elected officials would think about the tax system as a way to raise revenue needed by the federal government to operate rather than as a way to do favors for some and to denigrate others. I can dream, can't I?