Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018 | 2 a.m.
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Taxes were cut last year to stimulate the economy for increased tax revenues. The Dow Jones has risen 25 percent since January 2017 and unemployment is lower. In spite of this, the Treasury is reporting that this year’s deficit has increased 20 percent over last year.
Foreign governments now hold $6.2 trillion of the U.S. national debt, which continues to grow. Mandatory interest payments take away valuable revenue needed in America for infrastructure, education and medical care, and send it elsewhere.
In spite of mounting obligations, Congress has cut funding for the IRS over 27 percent since 2010, with another $500 million cut this year. Defunding the IRS guarantees it will not have the resources to collect taxes owed, even when the economy grows. Conservatives call this “killing the beast of big government.”
Republicans are now proposing tax plans calling for preferential treatment of pass-through business income, which would allow massive tax avoidance by wealthy taxpayers and cost hundreds of billions of dollars more over the next decade, according to the Tax Policy Center.
There is no doubt that the national debt will continue to grow with no limits until the public takes corrective actions at the ballot box.
