Tax and Don't Spend

My fellow Americans...

Typically I find myself among the pathetic ranks of the liberal, elitist, tax-and-spend, left-leaning, ambivalent that make up the bulk of the Democratic Party; and typically I am happy there. I support welfare, universal health care, women's and LGBT rights, and equal opportunity on racial, cultural, and class issues. I like unions and pull for the working man; I even recycle. They say that to live like a Republican you must vote Democrat, and I'm all for Republican living. But lately, the Democratic tax and spend philosophy has been found lacking. Lately, our coffers have too.

That is why, today, I am announcing the formation of a new party in Washington D.C. I call it the Responsible Party. It brakes down like this:

Republican—Conservative
Democrat—Liberal
Responsible—Realistic

Realism is the cooking goose that is lacking entirely from either side of this Presidential campaign. The essential issue here is that both men are looking at the same coin from different sides, all the while swearing that there are, in fact, two coins. Obama insists on a national fiscal responsibility that reduces wasteful spending, no-bid contracts, and realigns tax rates so the wealthy pay more. McCain insists that the solution is really "comprehensive spending controls" and "bi-partisanship in budget efforts" (quoted from http://www.johnmccain.com/Issues/JobsforAmerica/reform.htm).

The problem is that Obama limits spending cuts to "wasteful" spending and not to other, useful spending that we might just not be able to afford. In fact most of the admittedly good ideas he has about universal health care and energy policy will be difficult to pay for without tax increases across the board in addition to those changes mentioned above.

On McCain's side, he's convinced that the growth the country will need to balance the budget (note that his plan only recommends we stop making the deficit worse) by the end of his first term (his faith that he'll be able to walk, much less run, for a second term is impressive) inherently depends on making existing tax cuts permanent and offering new ones. McCain wants to lower corporate taxes to keep our jobs from taking the continental tour over to India and Asia. Now, I'm well aware that truth does not a campaign make, but Mr. McCain must know that a two or three percent tax cut isn't going to keep jobs in country. Industry leaves because, overseas, it can employee twenty workers for the same cost as one US laborer. To truly make the US competitive in many industries, we would actually have to pay them taxes (please note I'm not recommending this, at all, ever).

The Responsible Party takes this stand: Tax and Don't Spend. Responsibility will reconfigure the tax structure to take into account income, family size, and locational cost of living. Responsibility will take a close look at what it costs to create a firm foundation for the wage earner and family and will not tax a penny of it. Responsibility will take one quarter to one half of everything else. That's high taxes; that's responsible.

The US debt is approximately $9.5 trillion dollars. Typed out, 9,529,784,240,557.76, it is a chaotic collision of Arabic numerals (suspicious, no?) and messy punctuation. My share is $31,304.64; so is yours. (Figures quoted from www.brillig.com/debt_clock/ are accurate as of 25 Jul 2008 at 06:03:41 PM GMT)

On top of an increase in taxes, the US government will stop paying for programs it cannot afford. Period. If we want war, we can't have health care; we can't have schools; we can't have parks, roads, and bridges. Do you know why we have felt less affected by this war than any other generation of Americans living during a time of major conflict? Mostly because China is paying for it. What happens when China wants their money back? Do you have your $31 thousand ready? When we feel the pinch of policy, we change policy. America is dreaming; Responsibility will wake it.

Reader of this blog (currently that isn't a typo :) ) may wonder why I've shifted focus from my own debt to a debt on a more massive scale. It seems to me that debt has become as endemic to this country as obesity and dependence on foreign oil. How can I expect myself and others to spend their own money responsibly when a government made up of great minds (I swear there is no sarcasm here) cannot do it? We will and we must. In David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, the US and Canada, joined together as O.N.A.N., offer corporate sponsorship of time itself. Will we ever be that desperate for money? There is shame in that doubt.