Do you pay federal income taxes? Do you think the federal government should be able to get by on $2.1 TRILLION in annual spending? If the answer to both of these questions is YES, and you think the fiscal situation in the United States is tolerable, boy do we have a deal for you. If the United States government would simply pledge to spend "ONLY" $2.1 trillion during the July 2010 - June 2011 fiscal year, it could send a check to every taxpaying citizen in the nation for $14,500 without raising the budget deficit beyond current projections. This amounts to a check for $29,000 to every taxpaying married couple in America. 
How could this be? The math is simple. The government is on pace to spend $3.48 trillion during the current fiscal year. This includes $2.1 trillion, which is every cent of the actual tax revenues coming into the treasury. Additionally, the government will also borrow $1.38 trillion. If the government merely rebated to taxpayers the entire amount it is on pace to borrow, the result would be that it could write a check for $14,500 to every taxpaying citizen in the nation. Of course, this is a critical change in decision-making assignments. It would place an extra $14,500 in taxpayer's annual budgets ($29,000 if you are married). Progressives would argue that it is much more preferable that the government keep the decision-making power in Washington. And unfortunately for an honest dialogue, progressives enlist the logic-challenged arguments of economic illiterates. These types try to argue that only if government makes financial decisions will the process constitute "stimulation" of the economy. Absurdly, they would have us believe if mere citizens make the decisions, it would not be "stimulative."
It should come as no surprise that this stimulation myth tends to get perpetuated by our government-managed education system. Due to a lack of emphasis on basic economics most citizens are not even aware that $29,000 per married couple, per year, now represents the sheer magnitude our collective deference to government decision-making on borrowed funds. And sadly for America, those who are completely ignorant about the basics of economics have formed voting blocks with well-organized government worshippers to increase the concentration of decision-making power in the hands of government. In virtually every inner city in the nation the level of economic ignorance is now a multi-generational epidemic. And along with many other social ills this ignorance is acting like a plague on the nation. 
Of course for the so-called "progressive movement," more resources in the hands of government, in combination with less resources for taxpayers, is the one-size fits all solution to every problem. Progressives prefer a selective approach to learning from history. Clinging to denial of the historical fact that government cannot tax, borrow, or spend its way to prosperity represents the center of the progressive comfort zone. In the meantime, as 2011 begins basic common sense suggests that every taxpaying married couple in America could easily do a better job of managing an extra $29,000 per year than any government entity. Wake up folks and take note of the absence of common sense. We are drowning in progressive denial and economic foolishness. Oh and of course, Happy New Year!
Posts
