Pay-as-you-go

From Obama proposes making ‘pay-as-you-go’ the law – CNN.com:

President Obama on Tuesday proposed making “pay-as-you-go” rules for federal spending into law.

The so-called PAYGO proposal requires Congress to balance any increased spending by equal savings elsewhere, Obama said in announcing the measure that now goes to Congress.

A previous PAYGO mandate helped erase federal budget deficits in the 1990s, and subsequent ineffective rules contributed to the current budget deficits, Obama said. Now the PAYGO rules should be the law, he said. . . .

A White House statement said Obama’s proposal calls for the Office of Management and Budget to maintain a ledger of the average 10-year budgetary effects of all legislation affecting mandatory spending or baseline tax levels.

Any extra cost that lacks payment authorized by Congress would require the president to find money within the budget to pay it, while any tax cut would require a corresponding increase in tax revenue.

Some costs would be exempt, including Medicare payments to doctors, the estate and gift tax, and tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2002, the White House statement said.

Isn’t this responsible? Or a pretext for raising taxes? If we are going to spend more money, isn’t it better to raise taxes–as much as none of us like them–than to employ deficit spending?