COUNTERPOINT: Bush’s tax plan is good for us.
Last year, after difficult economic times, President Bush moved one of the largest tax cuts in American history through Congress and into law. This tax cut gave millions of Americans access to billions of dollars of their own money.
Then came Sept. 11, and the American people suffered the greatest paradigm shift since World War II.
Due to the spectacular cost of waging war in the modern era, the U.S. has once again faced the possibility of a brief period of deficit spending. The gap between spending and revenue would not be much and should be recouped within the next few years. However, this gap has proved to be just large enough for the liberals in Congress to squeeze through like rats and go after our money.
When you ask for money to complete a project, getting enough money is good, but getting more is even better. But this is over the top. It got so bad that the president was forced to threaten a veto. Let me say that again: He had to threaten to veto his own bill because Congress was spending too much money! If this isn’t a testimony to the morality and restraint of this president, then I don’t know what is. It has been a long time (since December 1992) since a president has possessed these qualities, and I’ve missed them.
Rather than give up this willy-nilly wasting of our money, Congress has decided that it would be better that we should pay for it. These guys crack me up. I work all day and at the end of two weeks, I am compensated for my trouble with a needed (if meager) paycheck. This point needs to be made in Washington, that this check is mine, a simple concept, but one that does not seem to click with the leftist leeches that live in D.C.
Now I don’t have any problem paying my fair share. There are many freedoms I enjoy that cost money, and I willingly admit to owing this money. But I don’t think I owe money for overgrown, out-of-control, congressional pork-barrel spending. And yet they desperately want me to pay for it.
The economic damage that a tax hike could do in these difficult times is enormous. Do you want to see how low the Dow can go? Repeal the tax cut. See how well companies that deal with consumers do after future income expectations drop even more? Consumer spending is two-thirds of the economy. Oh yeah, that’s a good idea.
Gabriel White is a senior majoring in political science. Comments can be sent to him at gkw@cc.usu.edu.