By Peter Churchman
When people talk about taxes they almost always are referring to the money that the government collects from us. Various agencies of the government collect income tax, property tax, sales tax, estate tax, hotel tax, liquor tax, gift tax, payroll tax, and the list goes on. However, the real burden of tax happens when government spends. The government cannot spend anything that it does not ultimately collect from the taxpayer.
The rate that our government is spending right now is absurd. Our federal government has already spent $21 trillion more than it has collected, and is on pace to spend $35 trillion over what it has collected by 2028. The national debt will be collected from the taxpayer eventually. Our current spending has already created generational debt and it is getting worse every second. It is time to shrink the federal government back to its proper realm outlined in the U.S. Constitution, and stop taxing the people of our great country, their children, and their grandchildren so much.
In order to have a low rate of taxation we have to have a low rate of spending. Yet every time congress meets, they vote to spend more and more of OUR money. We send these “jokers” to D.C. and they send us a tax bill. It is time we vote them out in mass, set term limits, end exorbitant salaries and retirement packages (paid for with OUR tax dollars), and elect a whole new government. Elect men and women who realize that every time they vote to spend one dollar they are actually voting to tax their constituents. Every time they vote to keep some government subsidy, for a campaign donor, they are voting to do so at the expense of the taxpayer. With each vote that they cast, they are making our nation weaker by plunging it deeper in debt.
This spring, the US Congress lowered the rate of taxation, which in my opinion was the correct thing to do. However, we increased the amount that our government is spending. We cannot do both of these things at the same time; doing so is asking our children to pay for our current expenditures. We should continue to decrease the rate of taxation, but at the same time cut unnecessary government programs. I firmly believe that the citizens of the U.S.A. are much better at spending their money than the federal government.
At the absolute minimum we should have a freeze on the budget. If the government wants to spend a dollar on a new program or increase the size of a certain agency, it would have to make a cut in another area. If we used this method, and stuck to it, we would have a balanced budget in a few years. The end goal should be to let the citizenry decide how to spend their own money, but we have a long way to go before we get there. We all will be better off with less government spending and smaller government.
Please note: Peter Churchman is the Libertarian candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in District 17. Peter Churchman can be reached at ChurchmanforTexas.com, Facebook.com/ElectPeterChurchman or on Twitter @ChurchmanTX17
