Can we tax our way out of irresponsible debt?

 Congress believes irresponsible debt and spending is needed to rectify the problems created by irresponsible debt and spending. Further, it believes raising taxes to pay for its irresponsible debt will actually stimulate spending.        

My father was raised on a farm in eastern Nebraska, sheltered from this unique congressional economic theory. He lived through the Great Depression, served in World War II, raised four sons, and never took a class in economics. Instead, he learned a simple, common sense, outdated, obviously flawed economic theory.  

The only money you ever borrow is for a home mortgage that is within your means. Don’t’ spend more than you earn. Live frugally. Never waste. Save money for the things you need. Be responsible. Love and take care of your family. Love your country. Serve in the military. Pay your taxes. Do your share. Could it be that simple?    

Not with Congress. It promises people they will not have to pay their fair share. It promises that a minority of the people will pay for the majority. It promises to raise taxes only on the “rich;” the people they make us believe do not deserve their money; the people who got their money from the backs of others’ labors, not earning it themselves; the people like the Bernard Madoffs we watch parading in and out of courtrooms.  

In other words, Congress spends money it does not have on programs we do not need, promising that only 5% of the people will pay for everyone. Maybe we really can get something for nothing.

So, who are these 5%, the people; the millionaires with more money than they deserve? The 1996 book, The Millionaire Next Door describes them as “welding contractors, auctioneers, rice farmers, owners of mobile-home parks, pest controllers, coin and stamp dealers, and paving contractors.” Most are small business owners who live in the same homes they purchased over twenty years ago. Few received an inheritance and most of those who went to college paid their own way. They rarely drive a car that is the current year’s model. They work forty-five to fifty-five hours a week and invest 20 percent of their income. They live frugally. They cut coupons out of newspapers.  

Wait a minute. Don’t we know some of these people? They are our acquaintances, friends, and neighbors. They are not the people we are told they are. They are not the Bernard Madoffs. They are not scam artists, greedy people unethically making their money off the sweat of others.

We actually know some of them well enough to know they worked hard for what they have. They did not cheat or hurt anyone. They did not get their money unfairly.  So why does Congress want us to believe they should be taxed in a punitive way? Because we are willing to believe that top 5% do not deserve that money and they should pay a higher percent of their income than the rest of us. Is that fair? Or, is Congress just telling us what we want to hear?

What if each of us paid the same percent of our income in taxes to support a responsible government; those earning less paying a lower total dollar amount in taxes and those earning more paying a higher total dollar amount in taxes. Those with higher incomes pay more money, but proportionately so rather than disproportionately so.  

Conservative southern Pastor, Dr. Adrian Rogers wrote, “You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”  

It’s worth some thought.

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