America is stuck in dangerous political gridlock because too many Americans have swallowed what the Republicans and the Tea Party tell us. While I do believe that most conservatives sincerely want what is best for our nation, their understanding of how economies work and what tax and regulatory policies will make things better is dangerously wrong.

The current deficit crisis is self-inflicted and quite artificial. It is far less a problem of over-spending than of under-taxation. It was created entirely by the Republican obsession with cutting taxes.

Bill Clinton had us on track, not simply to end deficit spending, but to eliminate the entire national debt by now. True, the 9/11 attacks necessarily resulted in increased military spending, but George W. Bush and the Republicans refused to include the cost of those wars in their budgets and to raise taxes to pay for them.

In the past we have raised taxes to pay for big wars. The top tax rate in World War I was 77 percent, and in World War II it was 94 percent. Instead, we have charged our wars to our children.

The federal income tax is 100 years old this year. In those first 100 years, the average top tax rate on regular income was 59.1 percent and the average top capital gains tax rate was 26.8 percent. Historical highs were 94 percent and 77 percent respectively. George W. Bush pushed them down to 35 percent and 15 percent. The 1 percent become ever more obscenely rich while most hard-working Americans struggle to hold their own and many sink.

It is simply not true that cutting taxes for the wealthy significantly increases job creation. In our current economy there are huge amounts of capital looking for good investments, but job creation languishes. Many of America's richest corporations have ridden out the Great Recession sitting on historically large cash reserves. If job creation really depended on how much money the "job creators" have, our unemployment rate should be zero. In fact, during a recession, corporations, business owners and the wealthy become more cautious and invest less. In a recession, government spending and employment do more to stabilize and stimulate the economy than anything else.

Private sector jobs result from innovation and demand for products and services. All the investment in the world will not profitably create or expand a company if no one can afford to buy its products. If you want a booming economy with lots of jobs, it is far more important to put cash in the pockets of America's employees and retirees, the ordinary citizens who do or have done most of the work and who buy the products and services.

There is plenty of wealth in the American economy for everyone to prosper. Current policies put far too much of that wealth into the hands of a very few who use it to stack the system in their own favor. We need to raise taxes, especially on the very rich, to levels that history has shown will adequately fund good government and maintain a fair and healthy distribution of wealth and power. That would seem to be top tax rates in the 40-60 percent range and capital gains taxed as regular income. The rich will be less rich but still rich; the government — our government — will have the money it needs to do its job well, and a bigger slice of the pie will go to working people.

It is said that you have to spend money to make money. So also it is true that we have to pay adequate taxes to maintain a free, prosperous and happy nation. Our economy generates far more than enough money to adequately fund Social Security, Medicare, education and health care reform. In fact, not adequately funding these things will be far more expensive and painful in the long run. Responsible government spending expands the economy for everyone.

Do not drink the Tea Party Kool-Aid! Aggressively cutting spending and taxes and shrinking government is a recipe for stagnation, decline and social turmoil. It is a race to the bottom. The only way to move America forward is to break the gridlock by voting militant conservatives out.