Bush's Loan of Consequence

Bush's tax cut may save the citizen today, but who will save the citizen from it tomorrow?

In a time of war, increasing deficits, and a sluggish economy, conservation of capital is nearly impossible, yet the Bush administration has somehow found a miracle recipe to continue dishing out tax cuts on a silver platter, primarily to those with matching spoons. A mathematician might disagree, but some feel this is good economics; namely those benefiting most from the tax cuts. The deficit, a hidden price tag pinned to Bush's tax cuts, equally burdens every American, but the tax cuts do not entitle every American to equal reimbursement. Never has there been a more enormous and costly loan to the people than the Bush tax cuts.

The budget deficit today stands at a record $425-$450 billion. Every day, an average of $1.6 billion is added to the deficit, and it is not because red ink pens are so expensive. It is the Bush tax cuts, the wasteful spending, and the irresponsible management of public funds that are causing the coffers to plummet. The problem with this is that eventually the people will have to pay for this shortfall, and it looks as if the White House has no logical plan to reverse the damaging trend.

China and Japan own a large sum of America's debt. At any time, these countries can drop their loans and plunge America into a financial crisis that it has not experienced since the Great Depression. These two countries may not halt lending or demand payments out of hostility, but possibly out of poor fiscal management, leaving them no choice but to access their lent funds. Poor management abroad should not put America at risk because of poor management at home. The richest, most powerful country in the world is at the economic mercy of a communistic, developing country and one with an unrefined banking system lacking safeguards.

The interest the U.S. pays these countries is money it could be using to bail out America's ailing healthcare system, to improve schools, to pave roads and to build new ones, but the giant pothole the Bush administration has created will no doubt financially trap America if the current road cannot be repaired soon. America is losing the capital it could be using.

America relies on other countries' capital because of the lack of it at home, which is a direct result of the Bush tax cuts' affect on the government's revenue. Because of Bush's tax cuts, revenue this year will total only 15.8% of the Gross Domestic Product. This is the lowest level since the 1950s.

In January of 2001, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) estimated that by 2011 a $5 trillion surplus would exist, while estimates today forecast a $4.3 trillion deficit by 2011. This is a $9.3 trillion difference, 35% of which is a direct result of the Bush tax cuts as determined by the CBPP. These predictions indicate Bush's tax cuts alone will cost the government $3,255,000,000,000. This cost suggests that each citizen should save $11,109.22 on average from the tax cuts. Are the average-income citizens saving this much? No. Where is their money going? To the richest people in the country, and now everyone is paying the price.

Those receiving the majority of the tax cuts are already financially secure. One would have to be secure to not fret over the fact that he, his wife, and his children each must make up $24,830.49 down the road; an amount every one of the nation's 293 million citizens owe the government's debt. The people owe it to Bush for driving this amount up for each of them by $5.45 a day. And besides an apology for being irresponsible with their money, Bush owes the people an immediate fiscal policy reform, not just a vague plan.

The tax cuts are a gift to the wealthy and a loan to the middle class because they create a deficit everyone must work to pay off. The money the rich are given vastly exceeds the share of deficit they owe Washington. The remainder of the deficit is a burden for the rest of America. The tax cuts are increasing a deficit that should not be expected to continue of the prosperity of America is.

The deficit is resulting in a lack of investor confidence and is turning away foreign investors of the dollar, causing the dollar to fall and interest rates to rise while stock prices and household wealth decline. The tax cuts which were supposed to be good for business and households are turning out only to be beneficial to those who do not live in houses but reside in mansions. Tax cuts cannot stimulate an economy when they create a deficit.

Some argue that by cutting taxes, more people have money to spend, which puts more money in circulation, which stimulates the economy, and finally the increased tax revenue made from increased spending compensates for the revenue lost on lower income taxes. This might all be true if the people who received the tax cuts were people who would spend more of that money, like the working class citizens. The tax cuts are saving the wealthy who do not need any more money to spend. Their money does not recirculate back into the American economy. What's a couple of grand when you already have everything in the world you could want? If they were spending, America would have a strong economy, but the country does not. Although they may sound good, the truth is the economic policies of the current administration does not work.

Increasing income tax in this country by the slightest amount could mean a world of difference quite literally. The idea is simple. More can be accomplished when resources are pooled. When the government takes in more revenue, the money is sure to be spent for the benefit of the people, and the country grows stronger. The U.S. government hires and buys American. When the government brings in revenue, it will pay citizens to work for citizens and will spend on Americans to help Americans, which makes everyone well off because it is certain the capital will circulate back into the U.S. economy, and the money spent is for the good of every citizen. But when Bush's tax cuts make a few rich Americans richer, the few extra dollars they spend may never go toward the benefit of Americans or the country; their entire fortune could sit for generations in an off-shore banking account benefiting the Swiss.

It seems as though there would be a point at which one becomes so wealthy that they would rather see their country prosper than to see themselves grow even richer. Benefiting at the expense of the country is not only selfish, but unpatriotic. A broke government and the continuing polarization of citizens' economic status will not lead the country to prosper, in fact, it was the very polarization of income that contributed most to the economic collapse of the Great Depression.

Even though the deficit is increasing, nobody can say Bush is without a plan. The most recent budget shortfall was predicted at $521 billion, but the administration was proud to report that the deficit increased $71-$86 billion less than the predictions. Bush attributes this "accomplishment" to his plan to halve the deficit by 2009. A hefty task, considering the deficit is still increasing. But the plan should be expected to work, or at least 3 percent of it should, since the last projection just two years ago made by the Bush administration predicted a deficit of only $14 billion today. This is a 97% incorrect projection. If the same holds true of this recent projection, only 1 one-thousandth of the deficit can be expected to be paid off by 2009, or look at it this way, in 5,000 years it will be completely paid off and then on to the national debt! Paying off the national debt did not seem like such an improbability before Bush was elected because that is exactly what the Clinton administration was doing with its surpluses just five years ago.

Clearly, Bush is digging himself a deeper and deeper hole as the deficit grows larger and larger. Bush himself can vouch that it is a lot easier to dig yourself a spider hole and hide in it than it is to climb back out and admit your mistakes. Most Americans know who is holding the shovel, but many do not know how deep Uncle Sam will trip and fall down the soon-to-be abyss if the pattern of consistent loss cannot be corrected soon. The Republican arachnid has dug a hole and spun a web that has trapped and entangled the nation. Bush must find a way to climb back out, or he will leave the nation in a spider hole that may never be completely filled.

Come November, it will be up to the American people to decide which road America is to take. The nation may not be able to handle four more years down Bush's steep turnpike, but if that is the path America chooses at the fork, there will be no turning back up that 97% grade.