Dec. PF topic analysis

Resolved: The United States should prioritize tax increases over spending cuts.

Taxation has been a hot partisan issue for the past few decades.  It's never not been a hot issue, but it has become increasingly contentious as most Democrats advocate for higher taxes (mainly on the "wealthy") and Republicans counter with supporting government spending cuts.  Let's look at an analogy that takes place at home:

Your family takes in about $100,000 a year.  Something happens and for whatever reason the income drops from $100K to $75K a year.  You can do one of two things: Get more income from other jobs or reduce your spending.  Most families in a situation like this will start reducing their spending.  They'll reduce/eliminate their spending on luxuries before cutting into more important expenses like mortgage, car-note, etc.

Our government has seen a reduction in the amount of money it has available. Fighting two wars, expanding the size government (thank Bush and Obama for that), spending money on natural disasters and other outlays will deplete the money pile pretty quickly.  The government can definitely cut spending and raise taxes but this debate is about which one should the government do first.

Taxation is mostly done through personal income, so a tax increase would obviously take effect there.  We have a progressive (or graduated) tax rate; the more you make the more you pay.  The IRS offers tax deductions for any number of things such as children, eco-friendly purchases, etc. which reduces the amount we're taxed.

Government spending is outlined in the annual budget the President submits to Congress for approval.  The bulk of the spending is in defense.  There are many pie-charts and graphs depicting the government's budget where you can see where your tax dollars go.

PRO - tax increases

Your increases can go one of several ways...
Letting the Bush tax-cuts expire.  This would repeal the tax cuts that Bush Jr. enacted at the beginning of his Presidency.  You will want to look at letting them expire specifically for the upper-income earners.  Here's a good article on the benefits of letting those tax cuts expire:

Benefits of letting tax cuts expire

There are other types of taxes that could be increased:

gas tax

soda tax - also called an excise tax

Of course any sort of tax plan you offer should argue that the U.S. economy is now strong enough to weather the increase.

CON - "taxes" are you insane?!

Raising taxes is an idea that is never received well, even less so when the economy is in the toilet.  Typical Con strategy can go one of two ways: Both/neither should be prioritized or spending cuts should be prioritized.  I don't think the former is really worth it, so here's how you argue for spending cuts.

8 ways to cut government spending

CATO institute proposal

cutting defense spending

This should get you started.  I'll help you with showing the DISADS for both sides later on.