QUID PRO STATUS QUO by T. Edwin Perry
It comes down to the old game of “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” At least, that’s the way I see the most recent news in the New York Times regarding a possible extension of the “Bush Tax Cuts,” which will hinge on an extension of Unemployment Benefits, that’s currently in the works. This agreement could extend the CURRENT tax rates by as much as two years, which would save taxpayers at all levels from facing increases over previous years, but would likely add to the deficit by spending more to keep the unemployed from Getting a Job.
Is this really a surprise to anyone? Personally, the idea of paying higher taxes is as abhorrent to me as a colonoscopy, but it may well be the price we must pay to restore some semblance of Conservatism to Congress. Think about this: the problem we face economically is that we have no more money to spend AND we keep spending money. At some point, we are going to have to Cut Up the Credit Cards and actually pay the bills. We have to STOP SPENDING! Of course, history has also shown us that RAISING TAXES only hurts the economy and actually generates LESS REVENUE for our Government to spend. It’s a “Lose-Lose” scenario: Keep taxes where they are and keep spending or raise taxes and cut spending. Either choice sucks!
The solution, as it always has been, is to cut BOTH the tax rates and the amount of spending. Unfortunately, Congress (and Many Americans, for that matter) is convinced that it is a “Zero Sum” equation. If you don’t do one, you must do the other. They believe that lowering taxes is a sacrifice, not an investment, and spending more money on entitlements is a benefit, not a burden. It’s simply ridiculous, and we have no one to blame but ourselves. After all, this is the same logic that we’ve been teaching ourselves for generations. We have to move beyond the mindset that taxation and spending are independent of one another. We need to cut the tax rate to allow the FREE MARKET to grow NATURALLY, without Government subsidy, and our Government needs to learn a thing or two about FRUGALITY, allowing the individual to become “Uncomfortable in their own Poverty,” as Ben Franklin put it, to encourage them to make the hard choices for themselves and eventually improve their situation. (Having gone from a job earning over $60,000 per year to a job earning less than $20,000 per year, I speak from a unique perspective. It CAN and MUST be done THIS WAY in order to survive!)
Like I said, it’s like a colonoscopy: sometimes, the only real solution is to go through the pain in order to fix the real problem.
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