But Come Back for More Cuts Later
The time is upon Congress to either fish or cut bait. A crucial decision must be made as to whether to further extend the tax cuts of 2017 or to let them expire. Letting them expire would be a catastrophic mistake.
The cuts in 2017 were not tax cuts for billionaires, as inaccurately described by Democrats and their allies in the legacy media. It was an across-the-board cut. It was the same type of cuts implemented by John Kennedy in the 60s, Ronald Reagan in the 80s and the capital gains cut by Bill Clinton in the 90s.
All of those tax cuts, including the ones in 2017, wound up bringing in more money for the federal government, not less.
Failing to extend them would result in a massive tax increase to working and middle-class Americans. Because Trump doubled the standardized deduction, which most people use when filing their taxes, the average family saved $2,000 a year. Not extending these tax cuts would force these middle- and working-class people to cough up that 2,000 every year.
And that’s just for starters. History shows that the increased taxes on all taxpayers, but especially the investor class, will result in a cratering of investment. That, in turn, will lead to a slower economy, lower wages, more unemployment, and less revenue actually coming into government coffers.
But this should hardly be a final product for Congress. Elon Musk was not incorrect when he said this bill made a mockery out of DOGE. Musk and other fiscal hawks such as Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) and Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) have been lashing out at the $7 trillion spending level which increased from just $4.5 trillion before Covid, and is now becoming the new normal.
There is no reason that the government should be funding, directly or indirectly, Medicaid and healthcare for illegal aliens. There is no reason why able-bodied adults with no dependents should be collecting welfare and Medicaid without even trying to get a job.
Clinton implemented workfare, which worked very well. Obama and Biden eviscerated it, but now this bill is an attempt to bring it back. It’s long overdue.
But once this bill is done, Congress must roll up its sleeves and start paring down the enormous costs that have been embedded into this budget since Covid. Liberal media outlets will publish one article after another as to how the bill will devastate people, using a handful of specific cases that they claim warrant no cut anywhere.
Never in those articles is there a mention of this enormous debt that is now hanging over every man, woman and child in this nation, especially the younger generation. Their quality of life will be severely impacted. That’s not even getting into the national security threat that comes with such debt, much of which is owned by China.
Don’t fall for the fear mongering. We heard the same thing from liberal editorial boards before the 2017 cut. But what did we see? We saw more revenue coming into the government. We saw historically high wage growth and low unemployment and a thriving economy in 2019 that was the envy of the world.
The American public was loving it. Then Covid hit and President Biden made the $7 trillion budget and $2 trillion annual deficits the new normal. We cannot resign ourselves to this. Pass this bill to prevent a huge tax hike for the working and middle class, but then get back to work and pass a follow-up to bring us back to a more rational spending level.