Resolved: the U.S should prioritize tax increases over spending cuts.

Before we get further into this debate we need to take a closer look at the resolution. The first thing we should look at is the word prioritize. When we say prioritize we are inferring that we are not debating that spending cuts are the only option for our government but that spending cuts will be more helpful than tax increases. 1. it"s a spending problem, not a revenue problem. Many people would argue that we need to increase revenue by raising taxes but according to Antony Davies (Professor of Economics) Even after adjusted to inflation and population growth, The U.S governments revenue has increased by three times the amount since 1950. This shows that we don"t have a revenue problem but a spending problem which can only be solved by spending cuts. Sub point A: In order to have a big enough impact, we would have to substantially raise taxes on the rich which will hurt our economy. Also according to Antony Davis, in order to get rid of the deficit, you would have to raise the tax rates to 88% on those making 180,000+ which would mean the average income earner of 300,000 would in the end have an income of 36,500 per year, which is less than the average income earner. This would greatly hurt our economy as a majority of these income earners currently provide jobs and spend money into the economy. Hurting these income holders would take away jobs hurting our economy. Now I will go on to say why spending cuts will actually help. 2. Defense cuts. Subpoint A: Defense cuts would save billions. According to USNews, most experts say that the cuts proposed to be made to the defense budget would cut it down by $700 Billion dollars in the next 10 years. This would be a huge step in moving towards the amount of spending cuts we need to turn ourselves around. Subpoint B: The United States Defense is over proportionate in their defense spending. According to the Huffington Post, The U.S spends almost 7 times as much on defense as China does and spend 3 times as much as Japan"s, UK"s, France"s, and Russia"s defense spending combined. We should"t have to have this big of a proportion compared to other countries, which makes the defense cuts proposed a perfectly logical proposal. And finally 3. Fraud, the amount of money that goes to people through things like Medicare as a result of fraud is horrendous. Subpoint A: Medicare. According to forbes.com, the government admitted to a staggering 60 billion dollars is stolen from Medicare scams every year and some experts believe the amount to be twice that. This is more than 10% of the 500 Billion dollars given out per year. If that much of the money goes to fraud, the government needs to do something to tighten down on security and cut some of the spending to Medicare. My opponent might try to point out that dealing with fraud isn't a spending cut, but what we need to see is that in the end, if we got rid of this fraud we would be putting less money into the system so it is actually a spending cut. The government needs to make serious changes to Entitlement programs in order to stop wasting unnecessary money, that"s what is sending our country into a downward spiral, misshapen governmental spending and no amount of tax increases will save us from this reckless spending. For these reasons I urge a con ballot. Sources: http://www.learnliberty.org... http://www.learnliberty.org... http://www.usnews.com... http://www.huffingtonpost.com... http://www.forbes.com...