Anybody betting the congressional supercommittee will reach an agreement to cut $1.5 trillion from the federal budget should get ready for a haircut. Most Americans want federal spending and debt cut dramatically because they fear failure to do so now will mean their children and grandchildren will suffer lowered standards of living tomorrow. But over and over, President Obama and congressional Democrats led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have proposed tax increases. The most recent illustration of this came last week when Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and her Democratic colleagues on the supercommittee reportedly demanded $1.3 trillion in higher levies as part of any final deal with the panel’s six GOP members. Most Americans oppose tax increases because they’ve seen this show too many times in the past. When Washington Democrats demand tax increases, more spending, not less, always follows. That’s what happened after President Clinton raised taxes in 1993, just as it did after Presidents Bush and Reagan before him agreed to demands from Democratic congressional majorities for higher taxes. Even when Democrats agree to spending cuts in return for tax increases — as they did with Reagan — federal expenditures grow ever bigger. Fortunately, House Speaker John Boehner knows this history, too, so this week he warned Obama, Reid and Murray that House Republicans are “opposed to tax hikes because we believe that tax hikes will hurt our economy and put Americans out of work.”