Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Washington's spending problem
From the RoundTable blog
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Bob Goodlatte
Goodlatte, a Republican, represents Virginia's 6th District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Families and small businesses all across the country are feeling the effects of the slowing economy, the housing crunch, high gas prices and wild swings in the stock markets. Facing an increased cost of living, Americans have had to tighten their belts and carefully budget their hard-earned money. But not to worry, the editors of The Roanoke Times have a solution: Raise your taxes ("Tax cut benefits getting harder to see," March 19 editorial).
Unfortunately, House Democrats in Congress agree. The budget resolution for fiscal year 2009 calls for the largest tax increase in American history: $683 billion over the next five years. This proposal significantly increases the tax burden on the middle class to pay for Washington's spending habit. The editors of The Times, like House Democrats, would have you believe that we should increase the tax burden on the very workers, families and small businesses to pay for new, wasteful "big government" spending in Washington.
The majority of my constituents -- married couples and parents -- will be surprised to learn that they are part of the "investor class," as the editors of The Times describe the 60 percent of Americans who are investors. Indeed, the Democrats' budget proposal passes this large tax increase along to hard-working families (investors or not) and small business owners by increasing the low 10 percent tax bracket to 15 percent, reducing the child tax credit, reinstating the marriage tax penalty, increasing the death tax, and increasing capital gains and dividends tax rates.
In simple terms, this tax increase means that more than 6 million low-income individuals and couples who currently pay no taxes will no longer be exempt, more than 115 million taxpayers will face an average tax hike of more than $1,800 and tax bills for an estimated 27 million small business owners will increase by more than $4,000 each.
In contrast, when we lower the tax burden on America's families, we encourage investment, savings and job creation. Nothing proves this more than the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, which helped create one of the strongest economies in American history, including 8.3 million new jobs and real growth in gross domestic product averaging more than 3 percent per year. The economic growth resulted in a 50 percent increase in annual revenues coming into the federal government, clearly showing that Washington has a spending problem, not a revenue problem.
Now with economic growth in jeopardy, after six consecutive years of economic growth, House Democrats and others call for adding the burden of tax increases on these same hard-working families and businesses.
What's worse, the Democrats' budget makes no attempt to rein in government spending to balance our federal budget. Instead, their budget exceeds the president's spending levels by $276 billion over five years and puts the bill on the backs of middle- and lower-income Americans.
Both parties in Congress and the president must steadfastly hold the line on government spending, which is why I have consistently voted for the tightest budgets possible each year. In addition, I have introduced a balanced budget amendment to the United States Constitution, common-sense legislation that would force Congress to rein in government spending.
The way to balance the federal budget is to reduce government spending, not raise taxes. The federal government must work to both eliminate every cent of waste and squeeze every cent of value out of each dollar our citizens entrust to it.
Families all across our nation understand what it means to make tough decisions each day about what they can and cannot afford, and Congress should not be allowed to ignore these tough decisions in the name of political expediency when creating spending policies for the federal government.
Even in these challenging times, it is important for government to be fiscally responsible. The solution is not to raise taxes, which simply takes money out of the hands of hard-working Americans and sends it to Washington to be squandered on out-of-control government spending, leading us further down the road of chronic deficits. We must continue to support pro-growth policies that strengthen our workforce, grow our economy and keep America competitive.
