Tax cuts can be hazardous

On Nov. 18, The New York Times published a story titled “House Passes Tax Bill, as Does Senate Panel.” It detailed the political complexities of the legislation, driven largely by the winners (the rich) and losers (everyone else).

Another important issue getting less coverage is the impact the legislation will have on federally funded programs that keep all Americans safe and secure — rich and poor alike. Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that the tax legislation will add nearly $1.5 trillion to the deficit. History shows that when the deficit grows, lawmakers turn to federal programs for cuts.

In response to unchecked deficits of the 2000s, lawmakers have cut “nondefense discretionary” spending by 13 percent since 2010. In Washington parlance, that’s the part of the federal budget that supports everything from education to veterans’ services to the National Park Service. As a share of our economy, available funding for these programs is now close to the lowest level since 1962.

I have seen the impact of these budget cuts on services to our most vulnerable children and families: food stamps, foster care maintenance, community service budgets, Children’s Health Insurance Program. Sadly, our Legislature is playing its own version of this tragedy. While not campaigning for “tax cuts,” they instead refuse to raise revenues to keep our families, schools and society “whole and healthy.”

In both the federal and Oklahoma state scenario, we are asked to believe that the wealthy will provide ... jobs, good salaries, donations. Yet even the proposed federal budgets do away with charitable deductions!

This is the season of family, hope and sharing. As our Savior has ordered, “And he will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’”

In their haste to pass tax cuts, federal lawmakers should take care to do no further harm by unnecessarily driving up our deficit and debt.

In their stubbornness to act responsibly, state lawmakers must do no further harm by pandering to ideology at the expense of the majority and ignoring the gaping needs of civil society.

Boyd, of Norman, is a national consultant in child welfare and a former Democratic member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives.