Our taxes are going to change. The federal government (for most of us) is going to take less of our money to fund its operating expenses. This sounds fantastic. As consumers, we can spend more. And employers might turn their tax savings into greater investment and better wages for employees. So why aren’t we all dancing in the streets?
For me, there was no dancing. The government is taking less of our money to fund its operating expenses, but it failed to correspondingly decrease operating expenses. So, expenses stay the same (or, God forbid, increase), but the government now has less revenue to cover the expenses. The federal government hasn’t had sufficient revenue to cover its expenses in a very long time, hence the enormous deficit. This tax reform, under the best of circumstances, increases the deficit by ONE TRILLION DOLLARS. So, unless Congress shrinks the size of government and its spending habits, as a country we have taken one trillion steps backwards fiscally.
Standing alone, this bill is like my cable bill. When I signed up for cable I only had to pay $30 a month. That seemed like a great deal. But after six months, my cable bill jumped to $130 a month. This was because the cable company provided me with an introductory price that was insufficient to cover the company’s operating expenses, and the company assumes it can “make it up in the end” by luring me into buying cable and hooking me on “must-see” television so that when the $130 bill arrives it’s too painful to give up the service. I think this is called a “teaser rate.” This tax reform feels much like cable: It’s great today, but at some point the trillion-dollar bill will come in the mail, and it will have to be paid. I can discontinue cable; we can’t discontinue America.
There is only one way to avoid the trillion-dollar bill: Congress must cut expenses. I have never felt a greater sense of urgency on this issue than I do now, even though our deficit doubled over the last 10 years. Perhaps my anxiety is that a Republican-controlled Congress that touts fiscal restraint passed a bill that exhibits no fiscal restraint.
I remain cautiously optimistic that comprehensive government-expense reduction is next on the Congressional agenda. Without a corresponding reduction in expenses, our reliance on China as a loan shark becomes very real. As an inherently independent Montanan, I am not interested in being beholden to China to finance my government. But without a balanced budget, where our bills are paid with money and not loans, America really has no independence at all.
Tammi Fisher is an attorney and former mayor of Kalispell.