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FEATURE ARTICLE |
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Headed Toward the 11th Hour Compromise
Powell Gammill Website: Gammill For Congress Blog: Fascist Nation Date: 12-03-2012 Subject: Congress-Congressmen As the year draws to an end, America faces yet another Congressionally-manufactured crisis which will likely end in yet another 11th hour compromise, resulting in more government growth touted as “saving”
the economy. While cutting taxes is always a good idea, setting up a
ticking time bomb with a sunset provision, as the Bush tax cuts did, is
terrible policy. Congress should have just cut taxes. But instead, we
have a crisis that is sure not to go to waste. The hysteria surrounding the January 1 deadline for the Budget
Control Act’s spending cuts and expiration of the Bush tax cuts seems
all too familiar. Even the language is predictably hysterical: if
government reduces planned spending increases by even a tiny amount, the
economy will go over a “fiscal cliff.” This is nonsense. This rhetoric is based on the belief that government spending
sustains the economy, when in fact the opposite is true. Every dollar
the government spends is a dollar taken from consumers, businessmen, or
investors. Reducing spending can only help the economy by putting money
back in the hands of ordinary Americans. Politicians who claim to
support the free market and the lower and middle-class should take this
to heart. The reality is, however, that neither Republicans nor Democrats are serious about cutting spending. Even though U.S.
military spending is exponentially larger than any other country and is
notorious for its inefficiency and cost overruns, Republicans cannot
seem to stomach even one penny of cuts to the Pentagon’s budget. This
is unfortunate because this is the easiest, most obvious place to start
getting spending under control. The military-industrial complex and
unconstitutional overseas military interventions should be the first
place we look for budget cuts. Similarly, Democrats are digging in their heels on not cutting any
welfare or entitlement spending and instead propose to fix the deficit
by raising taxes on the rich, even though the U.S. Government already
has a progressive tax code and the rich already pay more than their fair
share. Furthermore, these higher taxes would fall on small business
owners, investors, and entrepreneurs"in other words, the source of
economic growth and new jobs! The truth is that there is no excuse for government spending being as
high as it is, nor for taxes being as high as they are. Even the God
of the Old Testament only asked for 10% as a tithe and offering, and
Americans revolted against the King of England for taxes that amounted
to less than five percent. Yet so many people today complain about
“loopholes” for the rich that lower their actual tax rate to “only” 13%
in some instances. Even that is a criminal amount to pay for a
wasteful, abusive, unconstitutional government. We are indeed headed to a fiscal cliff and have been long before this
latest hysteria cropped up. But it is not cuts to spending or reduced
government “revenue” that will send us over the cliff, it is continued government spending that will. Until the federal government limits
itself to its Constitutionally-mandated role, spending and taxation will
remain out of control. Look for a “bipartisan” compromise in late December, with Republicans
giving in to tax increases and settling for phony spending cuts that
actually grow government, and Democrats caving on defense cuts in
exchange for tax increases. This is how the government has always
grown: both sides will sacrifice their pro-liberty, small government
stances in certain areas in order to grow the government where they
prefer. Liberty always loses in the 11th hour. |