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Speaking of the deficit ...

... is there any chance of reducing it significantly?

There is no particular evidence increasing income tax rates increases revenue.  Maybe somehow taxing "billionaires" could raise revenue, but Europe didn't have much luck trying that.  Can anything appreciably raise tax revenue without kicking the economy to the curb (thus lowering revenue)?

That leaves cutting spending.  Republicans claim to be cutting spending, but to me, it looks to be rather trivial as compared with a nearly $2 trillion deficit.

The best I can see is gradually lowering deficit as a percent of GDP, and even that looks dubious.

A guy in surlyhorns who lives in Spain is posting about what's going on.  Says he didn't really even know it was widespread until he left his neighborhood to go to the store. They are out of bread, and the refrigerated sections of the store are on lockdown so the helado doesn't melt.  Internet was out for most of the day but it's back on now.  Beer is getting warm but he's still drinking it.

There is no particular evidence increasing income tax rates increases revenue.  Maybe somehow taxing "billionaires" could raise revenue, but Europe didn't have much luck trying that.  Can anything appreciably raise tax revenue without kicking the economy to the curb (thus lowering revenue)?

Do you have any actual evidence showing this? This claim sounds like something straight out of a think tank that whitewashes GOP talking points.

I believe Thomas Sowell has written on this in several of his books, too, citing info from various countries in various times, as he often does.  But he's only a genius, so what does he know. 

At least part of its reality is explicable by pretty obvious mechanisms, but I don't know what percentage.  Since its causation is largely unstudied, I wonder if it holds only with slow gradations, or if it would hold true with major changes.  i.e., if the latter, the politician who radically slashed taxes and supercharged GDP while maintaining revenue would be pretty popular.  

Speaking of the deficit ...

... is there any chance of reducing it significantly?

There is no particular evidence increasing income tax rates increases revenue.  Maybe somehow taxing "billionaires" could raise revenue, but Europe didn't have much luck trying that.  Can anything appreciably raise tax revenue without kicking the economy to the curb (thus lowering revenue)?

That leaves cutting spending.  Republicans claim to be cutting spending, but to me, it looks to be rather trivial as compared with a nearly $2 trillion deficit.

The best I can see is gradually lowering deficit as a percent of GDP, and even that looks dubious.

At the end of the day, we the electorate are to blame.  If someone ran on a clearly defined platform of doing what is necessary to get the deficit under control, they would get smoked.  So we get what we vote for.  

When you raise rates you encourage tax avoidance.  The more you raise rates the more you encourage tax avoidance so the additional revenue is pretty limited. 

I think there's also something to be said for the fact that raising taxes that affect business owners--whether it's corporate, or an income bracket, etc.--the more they lay people off, which in turn reduces tax revenue.  I don't know what the actual offset is.  I know it tends to be a wet blanket for the job market. 

but, it's a fun game  - makes accountants & lawyers money