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It's April 15th, that dreaded day when it comes time to pay the tax man.
As nagging as the pinch may feel this year, the sad reality is that it's bound to grow far worse in the future — that is, of course, unless Washington moves to repair the deteriorating fiscal health of our country by reining in its out-of-control spending habits.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, debt held by the public under the Obama administration would grow from $5.8 trillion at the end of 2008 to a stratospheric $20.3 trillion in 2020, or from 40% of the economy to 90%, respectively.
Also, annual interest on the debt would more than quadruple over the next 10 years, rising from $187 billion last year to $916 billion in 2020. By 2018, interest will eat up $2 billion per day.
With our debt ballooning to unsustainable levels, it's time for Washington to stop pretending there won't be severe consequences for our expansion of government spending programs.
Such a weighty debt load over time makes huge, growth-killing tax increases inevitable. The majority party has already made clear that it will raise taxes on income, capital gains and dividends.
Democrats, including the president himself, refer to a portion of this as the expiration of the "Bush tax cuts."
Yet for years these have been the people's tax cuts, and erasing them is a tax increase by any definition. In other words, by year's end, Americans will face the "Obama tax increase."
As painful as next year's tax hike will be, it will provide only a small glimpse into the tax hikes Americans may face in the future.
But higher taxes aren't the only way our exploding debt will erode America's superpower status. Swelling red ink forces us into a state of dependency on countries like China whom we rely on to buy our debt.
It drives up the long-term risk of inflation and a weak dollar. It also means precious dollars for defense will be siphoned away for debt repayment.
That's why Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and former CBO Director Steve Elmendorf both sent stern messages to our lawmakers last week that action must be taken to head off dire economic harm.
It would be nice for Congress to have an open and honest debate about how we can get our budgets under control.
The most obvious venue for that discussion would be the annual congressional budget process that sets the parameters for federal spending.
Income tax day, April 15, now divides Americans into two almost equal classes: those who pay for the services provided by government and the freeloaders. The percentage of Americans who will pay no federal income taxes at all for 2009 has risen to 47%. That isn't the worst of it. The bottom 40% not ...
Sometimes you have to take out your political lenses and look at the actual statistics to get a true picture of the health of the American economy. Right now, those statistics are saying a modest cyclical rebound following a very deep downturn could actually be turning into a full-fledged, ...
One of the most ominous developments of our time has been the multicultural dogma that all cultures are equal. It is one of the many unsubstantiated assertions that have become fashionable among self-congratulatory elites, with hard evidence being neither asked for nor offered. But, however much ...
The blatant and undeniable fact that different racial, ethnic and other groups have had radically different economic and intellectual achievements for centuries, in countries around the world, has led to widely varying theories and widely varying political and other reactions. A hundred years ago, ...
No dogma has caused more mischief — and, in some countries, tragedies — than the notion that there is something strange and wrong when some groups are "overrepresented" or "underrepresented" in some occupations or institutions. This dogma is so widely accepted, and so deeply entrenched, ...
Posted By: Maddox(70) on 4/14/2010 | 10:24 PM ET
axo0gyp, you rip Republicans for spending like drunken sailors and then praise The Obama Regime which has more than tripled the amount of debt from the entire Bush Presidency in only the first 16 months. Are you really that uninformed or are you blinded by your adoration of the arrogant One?
Posted By: axo0gyp(215) on 4/14/2010 | 10:22 PM ET
thebassman, Corporate profits are up, the banks have stabilized, we have begun generating jobs. This in spite of the greatest banking crisis since the great depression. Give credit where credit is due. Give kudos to the Obama administration and let Rep. Cantor know that he cannot pull the wool over our eyes. Republicans caused the loss of 4 million jobs. democrats will create millions more.
Posted By: thebassman(495) on 4/14/2010 | 9:34 PM ET
axo0gyp what planet are you from? Lifted us out of recession? Why did Dems propose extending unemployment benefits, again, to for as long as it takes to find job? US lost 4M jobs since O took power. Debt is going thru roof, more debt, by far, in 1st yr in office than Bush had in 8 fighting 2 wars. Trickle down was Reagan, pulling us out of worst recession in years, brought on by CARTER (dem) policy. Reagan similar to JFK (dem) who CUT TAXES & got growth. Fail to learn, doomed to repeat.
Posted By: axo0gyp(215) on 4/14/2010 | 8:54 PM ET
Republicans spent like drunken sailors for 8 years and we are supposed to believe they have become the party of fiscal responsibility? Rep. Cantor may think we have forgotten republican excesses that got us into this economic mess but we have not forgotten trickle down economics and the damage it has done to the American economy. Thank God for a democratic majority and a democratic president that have lifted America out of the recession.
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