National budget, tax decisions don't add up

Frontiersman Editorial Board

Within just a few hours on Friday, Congress passed two dramatic economic bills. The first was a $350-billion package that will reduce income taxes and provide about $20 billion in assistance to states. The second bill approved a record increase in the government debt -- that bill will allow the national debt to swell by $984 billion.

The tax cut will allow the average family to keep about $330 more of its earnings each year, or about $27 per month. The increase of the national debt will create a further drain on the budget in the form of interest payments. Basically it would be like you agreeing to reduce your income and then make up the difference by increasing your credit card debt. For decades now, one of the most popular labels Republicans have saddled Democrats with is "tax and spend." Apparently this Republican-led Congress and the Bush administration are willing to do their part to reduce taxes, but they can't get over their urge to spend.

This government wants to have it all, it seems. The problem with spending gobs of money you don't have is that the bill eventually comes due. You wouldn't run your home budget that way -- at least not without getting on a first-name basis with a few bill collectors -- and we should expect more responsible fiscal behavior from our government. When you're spending that whopping $27 each month, don't forget that the government that provided that windfall is throwing huge, and ever-increasing, amounts of money on interest payments. Not on programs and services, but on interest. That means, when the bill is finally paid, the reduced services you're receiving due to budget cuts will cost more than you agreed to pay for them.

It's time for this administration to take a more responsible and realistic approach to economics. At the moment, the administration is winning on many fronts. The war in Iraq, though it has produced no evidence of weapons of mass destruction, nor has it reduced the terror threat (we're at level orange again), was a popular war. That's partly because we haven't begun to pay for it, or its aftermath. The tax cut will also play well for a short time. But, decisions that are popular now will become more problematic when the real cost becomes apparent. This tax cut is touted as an economic stimulus package. However, similar economic practices during the Reagan administration led to a long recession. We're already in a deep recession now, so the long-term effects of this stimulus effort may be dubious at best.

What else would we expect from a borrow and spend government?