It's the Spending, Stupid
Posted in Politics by Julie Ponzi
Bill O'Reilly thinks that John Stossel doesn't get it because Stossel isn't angry
enough about high taxes. In this article,
John Stossel fires back, making the case that onerous as the taxes are, they are only part of the problem. It's not just the taxes that are killing us, it's the spending and the nature of the spending . . . and the bloody arrogance of the spenders in spending it. Stossel nails it when he remarks that tax revolts will only take us so far. Unless and until we are able and willing to control the spending--and the political fortunes of those who do the spending--then all the indignation in the world over high taxes is going to amount to little more than a plaintive whine.
1:47 PM / November 18, 2009
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I despise these process arguments. Money is just a means. Ultimately, it's the purpose that counts. High taxation and spending are important indicia of wayward purposes in a frugal republican regime. Both Stossel and O'Reilly postpone ultimate questions, as did Stephen Douglas, et al.
Ahh . . . but Stossel (if he can't lead the argument) brings people closer to it. It would be an improvement if the rallying cry were spending rather than taxing, wouldn't it? The question of spending begs the question of purposes . . . but at least it points to it as the next, and obvious, question!
The tax protests may have an impact at the state level where spending is more closely tied to available income.
But not at the federal level where deficit spending is fully embedded into the mind of the current political class.
The states *should* have had their day of reckoning, but the "stimulus" bought them a reprieve. It was all phantom money, but it served its purpose to forestall the inevitable.
Bottom line -- ultimately it is the spending that's the issue. High taxes support the spending. Lower taxes would normally put pressure on the spending, but it seems there are some who think otherwise.
Taxes and Spending are not connected. Under Bush we had tax cuts plus increased spending much like under Reagan. The dollar is pure fiction. It seems that the only thing keeping it alive is the game of russian roulette we have going with china where if they sell our debt or unload it we stop buying their slave wage goods.
Step back and put that scenario in General Ripper's diologue, sounds crazier than flouride damaging our fluids.