Tax Revenues: Awful, Any Way You Look at the Numbers

David Cay Johnston | Mar. 28, 2011 11:27 AM EDT

When society is in the midst of major economic and policy changes, the alligators in the swamp keep us focused on the immediate, so we don't notice as the water slowly rises or drains away.

But we now have so much evidence showing the trend in tax revenues, and the incomes on which they rely, that the awful facts should be obvious. I sure thought so when I wrote my February 28 column. A letter from Kip Dellinger suggests otherwise (Tax Notes, Mar. 21, 2011, p. 1495).