They certainly don’t make reasonable Republicans like Dwight Eisenhower anymore…

“Whether we are ready to face the job this minute or any other time, the fact is there must be balanced budgets before we are again on a safe and sound system in our economy. That means, to my mind, that we cannot afford to reduce taxes, reduce income, until we have in sight a program of expenditures that shows that the factors of income and of outgo will be balanced. Now that is just to my mind sheer necessity.”

– Republican U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, February 17, 1953

It’s important to remember that during Eisenhower’s two terms in office, the marginal tax rate for the richest Americans was more than 90%, and while I’m certainly not advocating higher taxes, it seems pretty clear to me that our nation doesn’t have a “high tax” problem – it has a serious revenue problem.