As the United States rapidly approaches the current debt ceiling of $14,294,000,000,000 (fourteen trillion two hundred and ninety four billion dollars) it seems balancing the federal budget is something our politicians enjoy leaving till the last minute. While it’s in nobody’s best interest for the U.S. to default on its debt, a few are willing to take the risk and see what happens by threatening not to raise the debt ceiling.
As most acknowledge the dire need for reform in order for the United States to pay its bills and help Americans recover from the recession, there is a historic change of how Republicans and Democrats are approaching the economy. This time it seems Republicans can’t stop spending taxpayer money as they refuse to cut oil and ethanol subsidies and continue to give money to industries that should be the last to receive any sort of welfare. On the other side of the aisle, top Democrats have identified trillions of dollars of savings to entitlement programs such as medicare and social security, when previous cuts to these programs where entirely out of the question.
Other missed opportunities when trying to balance the federal budget is to allow companies like GE and many others to take advantage of corporate tax loopholes which allow them to get away with not paying any taxes at all. If the IRS would collect a fair share of corporate tax from every company in every industry, this revenue would pay for trillions of dollars towards the debt the United States owes. Top Republicans including John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Mitch McConnell have dismissed the idea of balancing the budget by raising revenue for the federal government, claiming that President Obama is only interested in raising taxes. The problem isn’t with the current tax rate, but rather that it isn’t enforced for all companies. It doesn’t make much sense for some companies to pay one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world, while others pay significantly less or in some cases nothing at all.
Defense and military spending is another area of government that can be scaled way back without compromising our safety. It’s absurd for us to send billions of dollars to other countries in order for them to “help us fight terrorism”. We have to take a tougher stance and demand that knowledge is shared in order to fight terrorism without having to pay them. Countries around the world have the same enemy and the U.S. can’t be the only country spending our resources to keep the rest of the world safe.
Now that politicians in Washington know how to balance the budget, the question remains of how they can get Americans back to work, so people can pay their bills and live the lifestyle we are used to. The answer is to get out of the way and let the market take care of itself. Raising taxes on anyone must be entirely out of the question during good times and bad and in fact politicians should continually find ways to reduce the size of government. Every American, poor, middle class and rich already pays much more than their fair share of taxes.
Democrats like to say the tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003 during the Bush administration only benefit the wealthiest, when they in fact reduced the tax burden for most Americans. Below is the current tax brackets for the United States.
| Marginal Tax Rate | Single | Married Filing Jointly or Qualified Widow(er) | Married Filing Separately | Head of Household |
| 10% | $0 – $8,350 | $0 – $16,700 | $0 – $8,350 | $0 – $11,950 |
| 15% | $8,351– $33,950 | $16,701 – $67,900 | $8,351 – $33,950 | $11,951 – $45,500 |
| 25% | $33,951 – $82,250 | $67,901 – $137,050 | $33,951 – $68,525 | $45,501 – $117,450 |
| 28% | $82,251 – $171,550 | $137,051 – $208,850 | $68,525 – $104,425 | $117,451 – $190,200 |
| 33% | $171,551 – $372,950 | $208,851 – $372,950 | $104,426 – $186,475 | $190,201 – $372,950 |
| 35% | $372,951+ | $372,951+ | $186,476+ | $372,951+ |
Below this is the tax increases and decreases that have passed since the early 90’s. In 1993 you can see when President Clinton raised taxes for the wealthiest Americans to 36% and 39.6%. Then in 2001 you see the tax cuts go into effect for everyone except those that pay the very minimum, but still requiring the richest Americans to pay a larger percentage than they were paying before Bill Clinton took office.
| 1992 | 1993–2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003–2007 |
| 15% | 15% | 15% | 10% | 10% |
| 15% | 15% | |||
| 28% | 28% | 27.5% | 27% | 25% |
| 31% | 31% | 30.5% | 30% | 28% |
| 36% | 35.5% | 35% | 33% | |
| 39.6% | 39.1% | 38.6% | 35% |
(Source: Wikipedia)
Everyone knows you can balance the budget by either raising revenue, decrease spending, or a combination of the two. The best way to balance the federal budget is a combination of the two, but instead of raising revenue by increasing taxes, the federal government can instead make more money by cutting taxes and collecting more money when all Americans prosper. The government has to create systems and make it easy for Americans to prosper and become wealthy and it can only do this by reducing the tax liability for all Americans. Jobs are created when Americans can reinvest their money instead of having to pay a larger percentage of taxes. Once unemployment is decreased more people are able to pay taxes which is a much better way of making money than gouging the remaining few that are employed. Government can’t continue to punish the wealthy by forcing them to pay more taxes. Politicians should look at Americans as business partners and make it as easy as possible to become wealthy by decreasing the percentage of money everyone must pay.
The United States doesn’t feel much like a free country anymore when the government makes Americans hand over more than a quarter of their paycheck. Then after taking 15% – 35% off the top, still charging property taxes, sales taxes, death taxes, payroll taxes and other excise taxes the government charges Americans just to keep up it’s wasteful spending habits. Any hint that any politician ever gives in the foreseeable future to raise taxes in any way should be immediately exiled from the country. Every new tax placed on the shoulders of Americans takes us further away from the reason we fought for our independence in the first place.
The talks to balance the federal budget take place behind closed doors, but as far as anyone can tell, Democrats are suggesting to raise revenue by closing tax loopholes and ending unnecessary subsidies. It makes no sense for Republicans not take this golden opportunity to reduce the size of government by ending subsidies and significantly scaling back medicare and social security in order to keep the country running once it hits the new debt ceiling.
Democrats now seem like the business friendly party, trying to get government out of the way of the free market. If Republicans continue to support subsidies and fail to make significant strides towards balancing the budget it won’t be long before the tea party movement begins to support Democrats. Politicians that will win American support will be those that reduce the size of government by ending subsidies, closing loopholes, scaling back on entitlement programs to make them sustainable and continue to find ways to reduce taxes for all Americans.
As a last resort if politicans can’t figure out how to balance the federal budget and negotiations fail, the country can always resort to legalizing nonviolent crimes and collecting taxes from these industries. I think even the most conservative member in government would rather have to inhale second hand smoke from his neighbor smoking marijuana, than having to resort to raising taxes on working Americans.