Cutting or Raising Taxes?

Clearly taxes have been slashed in recent times. George W. Bush did it. So did trump.

The result? Imbalanced budgets, deficit spending to the max, and destabilized interest rate markets, banking crisis, and an economy that doesn’t truly know up from down.

But there is a more sinister plot afoot. That is simply to underfund the government so it cannot do as much as it has been doing. That is the conservative temper on things and their aim is to get government down to the smallest size. Dealing with deficits forces Congress to confront a false enemy, however.

Rather than improving on the deficit, trump and republicans continue to preach lower taxes and the trickle down economic theory. We all know that theory is bunk and has not worked. Even today the president claims to want to cut taxes another $1.7 trillion, while democrats in the Congress and Biden, himself, think raising taxes by $4+ trillion would address many issues that have arisen because of the drastic manipulation of conservative budgets.

With tax reductions, two wars in the Middle East and the cost of overcoming 9/11. Katrina and later hurricanes, the federal government has added much debt for the public to repay. Add to that the cost of COVID – both in expense as well as the aftereffects of the resultant recession – and trillions more in debt has been added.

Corporate tax rates have been strong-armed down for many years, now. So too taxes on the rich. It is time to scale that largesse back significantly. We call that a backlash, and none too soon in my opinion.

The middle class has been all but eliminated. Unemployment, stagnant household incomes, working spouses (sometimes 3 jobs for each partner) and limited buying power for long term retirement goals, has pretty much destroyed the American Dream. If that is the aim of conservatives, then they have bought into a very dangerous and self-defeating tactic. This will destroy America as we know it. It will also destroy the very means of managing our way out of this awful hole we find ourselves in.

Selfishness and greed are not a character builder. Wealth builder, yes. But is that all there is in life?

I think not. Time to reverse our thinking and action to restore morality, vigor and future dreams.

Vote like your life depends on it. It does!

October 9, 2020