.Oakland Council Is Making a Mistake

Raising taxes during a recession makes almost no sense at all — especially when the burden will fall disproportionately on middle and lower-middle income families. Can you imagine the reaction if the Obama Administration proposed raising taxes on the middle class right now. It would be a firestorm, from both the right and the left. Yet that’s not stopping the Oakland City Council, which today is considering new ballot measures that would raise taxes during one of the worst economic times since the Great Depression.