Keep On Kicking The Can

So, I know I wrote a column a couple of weeks ago about the tax cuts but please suffer my venting a little more on the subject. It seems that some liberals just won’t let go of the concept that somehow cutting taxes is wrong. Now, they don’t say that but that’s basically what they mean.

Instead of coming out against tax cuts they decry the unfairness of how the cuts are going to be distributed and cry about the fact that the rich might get more cuts than anyone else. For a lot of reasons they really hate that someone who pays more taxes in the first place will get more back if there is a cut.

For many of them, they like using the tax codes to redistribute the wealth. I guess that is why so many people get more back in tax credits at the end of the year than they ever paid in. And then if there are tax cuts then liberals would rather talk about actual dollars rather than percentages because putting it into percentages doesn’t fit their philosophy.

I admitted in my column that I don’t know what is in the tax cut bill. I am relying on what I read and hear to make my analysis and what I’m hearing may be skewed (in both sides’ favor depending on what outlet I’m reading or listening to).

But, this much I do know, most liberals will never, ever be in favor of spending less money on social welfare programs. It is just not in their DNA to accept the fact that throwing more money at a problem doesn’t necessarily fix it.

National debt grew by nearly $8 trillion during Obama’s tenure in office and not a peep from the liberal faithful. While no one can really know the true cost of the recently passed tax cut bill, some sources say it could add $2.2 trillion to the national debt over 10 years. Other sources have it higher than that, but again, there is no way to know the real number.

But the point I want to make is that now many liberals have found their voice and are wringing their hands wondering how we are going to pay for this increase to the national debt. Let that one sink in — they accepted $8 trillion over eight years because that fit into their philosophy of spending more on social welfare (including of course Obamacare) but $2.2 trillion is just not acceptable because it is giving money back.

Our church is offering a Dave Ramsey financial planning course for anyone who wants to learn more about managing their money. I read Dave Ramsey’s column in the newspaper and agree with him almost all the time. But, when you get right down to it, his whole plan is based on spending less than you take in and living beneath your means.

In other words it is basically common sense — you can’t make a dollar and spend a dollar and ten cents and expect to sustain that trajectory. But, that is what our federal government is doing each and every year. And, it’s more than just 10% more that they are spending.

You know, in personal finances I understand how sometimes people get into situations beyond their control. It might be the loss of a job or a health problem and they get into financial problems. That can happen to anyone and it’s hard to hold them accountable for the results.

But, then there are people who like to “keep up with the Joneses” even if they don’t make as much as the Joneses. They live well above their income and just really live for today without any thought of what might happen tomorrow. And then when something does happen they don’t know what to do.

In the real world that is called being held accountable for your own actions. In the government world it is called deficit spending and in the mind of many that is acceptable just so long as the money is going to the betterment of society (however they define that term).

We have kicked the “can” of fiscal responsibility down the road for so long that the “can” is battered and crushed and it’s so far away that we can’t even see it. But we just keep spending and spending because that is what government does. And, the justification is that it makes society better.

I don’t know if the tax cuts are going to cost $2 trillion or $8 trillion or will pay for themselves. Don’t know if we will ever really know that answer. But, this I do know, at some point in time that “can” of fiscal responsibility will be completely crushed and then future generations will pay for our recklessness.