Tax pain for America

From an analysis conducted by the Associated Press on the fiscal situation facing the United States:

"Tax receipts are on pace to drop 18 percent this year, the biggest single-year decline since the Great Depression, while the federal deficit balloons to a record $1.8 trillion."

Perhaps even more starkly:

"Individual income tax receipts are down 22 percent from a year ago. Corporate income taxes are down 57 percent. Social Security tax receipts could drop for only the second time since 1940, and Medicare taxes are on pace to drop for only the third time ever."

Read the rest of the report for more details, and click on the graph above to see how stark this looks. Whatever the current politics of the U.S. tax system, it will have to change to face the challenge of the real world -- and not the other way around. Tax is back -- with a vengeance.