Cutting spending and raising taxes are not both indistinguishable forms of “austerity”. In the U.S. political context, the former almost always means cutting es

Cutting spending and raising taxes are not both indistinguishable forms of “austerity”. In the U.S. political context, the former almost always means cutting essential services to the most precarious people in society and the burden of the latter is almost always born by those with the most resources to bear it. Attempting to elide the two together under one term fundamentally misrepresents the politics of the situation and makes two very different options sound equally unpalatable.