The problem is not
taxes, it’s spending
A lot is made about the 47% who don’t pay Federal income taxes. About how the rich should pay more – their “fair
share.” And how our tax rates are too low to support our government.
Lost in all this barrage of claims and counter claims is one overlooked
reality.
We’re not going broke because taxes aren’t high enough.
We’re going broke because we’re spending too much.
Nobody wants to address that. The
presumption – particularly by the media and the Democrats – is that what the
government needs is not open to discussion.
Which is why you hear the media and Democrats constantly hammer at the
need to raise taxes on someone or something to provide more money to the government.
They never bring up that maybe – just maybe – we should look at the other
side of the equation.
Maybe government doesn’t actually “need” as much money.
Maybe government could cut spending so they didn’t need as much money. Or have to borrow so much from the
Chinese.
Maybe government – and politicians – could get in touch with reality,
first. Maybe they should consider what
we actually need as opposed to what politicians and special interests want.
If they honestly grasped that, maybe we wouldn’t be wasting money on
building an international airport in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Or financing a road to nowhere in
Alaska. Funding a golf course somewhere,
teaching inner-city kids to play tennis, building bike paths in urban areas, or
financing a high-speed railroad to connect California to Nevada,
Or forcing the military to buy stuff they don’t want or need.
None of these things are really needed.
But we spend a lot of money on them.
And maybe, if they knew we were paying more attention, they wouldn’t use our
dollars to pay for a media campaign to encourage illegal immigrants to sign up
for food stamps. Or to fund advertising to seniors to promote the
benefits of ObamaCare.
Sure these may all be nice ideas – to somebody – but should government be
paying for them?
The American public can’t seem to get the point across to elected
officials and bureaucrats that we can’t afford to squander money on “nice”
ideas. We have to focus on
necessities.
The harsh reality – and why we apparently can’t get out of our current
fiscal mess – is that as soon as politicians get their hands on new money, or
even the promise of new money, they immediately spend it. Give them more money through higher taxes,
and poof, it’s gone.
And almost always on other things that have nothing to do with what they
got the money for.
Remember when Social Security taxes were raised a few years ago to “save”
the program for seniors? Do you know where that money – and the money
before it – actually went?
Now some people do know that the government has been looting Social
Security funds for years for all kinds of purposes. And then replacing what
they take with government IOUs. It’s
perhaps the worst-kept secret in D.C.
And both parties have done it.
But most people – except for those who run the programs – don’t know that
for decades Social Security has been paying for pre-school education programs
and a whole range of other things that have absolutely nothing to do with
assuring financial security for seniors.
You’d be amazed at everything your Social Security taxes pay for – and astonished
how little of your money goes toward its long-term solvency. Go ahead, look it up.
It’s not just the Feds and Congress.
The tobacco settlement, which brought billions into state coffers to
help offset health costs of smokers and to promote anti-smoking campaigns, was
instead dumped into most states’ general funds.
The states then immediately spent almost all that money on everything
from reducing state debt to raises for government employees.
That’s why it’s maddening to hear the constant harping about the need for
more money for the government – be it state or Federal. Most of what they get they’ll squander.
We all know this. We see it every
day.
Which is why many of us are inherently opposed to higher taxes.
It’s not because we are selfish and piggish, which is what the media
wants you to believe.
Honestly, most Americans don’t mind paying taxes – what they do mind is
how frivolously and wastefully our tax dollars are used.
The unspoken reason why many of us oppose higher taxes and are in favor
of tax cuts is not that we simply want more money for ourselves.
It’s because we want to starve the government. We want it to learn to do what it needs to do
with less. We know it’s possible. Government is desperately in need of an “intervention.” We need to force the issue, address the
government’s addiction to spending, and this is one way we think government
will finally understand.
I don’t understand why so many people are so hesitant to admit this.
Government will never control spending until we cut up their credit cards
and force them to balance spending and income.
But until they recognize that the problem is spending, not solely income
through taxes, the problem cannot be solved.
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