Tax, stop spending

How about a compromise?

The Republican leadership needs to come out in favor of a tax increase for all Americans if the Democrats will agree to halt any spending increases. Every single dime of the new taxes generated would be directed to deficit reduction. When the deficit becomes a surplus, then the arguments over high taxes can resume at the same time that runaway spending returns.

The deficit, of course, is the 800-pound gorilla in the room. We want to avoid the deficit discussion and dance around the topic when we all know that the day will come when the deficit siphons every cent of revenue. The only answer at that point will be to print more money and we all know what happens on that fateful day.

In the past two years alone -- since we had an administration change in Washington -- Medicaid has increases 36 percent. Food stamps are up 80 percent. Welfare is up 24 percent. Unemployment benefits are four times higher. Add in Medicare and Social Security and there's nothing left in the bank.

So the tax-and-don't-spend approach is about the only "hope" remaining of that famous "hope and change" rhetoric.

The massive increases in these safety-net programs is the result of a weakened economy and Democratic policy changes that widened the eligibility for these programs. But the weakened economy is a result of runaway spending. It becomes a vicious cycle.

Many Americans would not oppose a higher tax rate if the funds were not designed to redistribute our wealth and create a more dependent society. But the opposition comes when the Democrats want more tax revenue to prop up more people and programs that prove less than beneficial to anyone.

If the Democrats can manage to push a majority of Americans into the dependent category, they will create a voting bloc that will last for generations. Those who depend on the federal government for their daily bread, shelter, health care, etc. will never throw their allegiance to a party who wants to control that spending.

No one know this better than our president and his cronies in Congress.

As someone who has been in the private sector creating jobs for a lifetime, I assure you the way to increase your bottom line is to control spending. Unfortunately in Washington these days, they do not understand this basic premise of economics.

Take more of my taxes. You already get upward of 40 percent, but that's OK. Just promise me that you'll use those new taxes to reduce our debt so that my children and grandchildren might have a better chance for success.