The worrisome disconnect between Americans of differing views is far more than just a battle of ideologies. Increasingly, the issue is not merely Democrat against Republican, or liberal against conservative. The divide now appears to be reality versus magical thinking.
America endures a $21 trillion national debt and adds to it with substantial annual deficits each year. Key existing social programs such as Social Security and Medicare are heading towards bankruptcy. The American Society of Civil Engineers rates the national infrastructure as only D+. Growing threats from abroad require significant increases in defense spending.
Despite that, a bevy of astronomically expensive programs are being seriously proposed, unhinged from all fiscal practicality. Politicians, of course, have always been free with absurd promises that they know can’t be kept, but the current crop of unaffordable ideas is gaining serious traction. The 2010 passage of Obamacare leads many to believe that further massive social programs can be enacted, if there are sufficient votes in Congress. Financial responsibility is considered almost inappropriate to mention.
Questions about affordability are responded to with a simplistic call to raise taxes. But there is no effective way to pay for these things by increasing taxes. There is not enough income to be taxed at levels which would not destroy the economy. An attempt to do so would chase businesses and jobs out of the country, ultimately producing less, not more, Treasury collections.
In essence, tax increases are like Harry Potter’s magic wand. Don’t try to find the logic in it, just accept the magic.
Consider some of the more salient unaffordable ideas currently in vogue.
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Free college tuition is an idea passionately advocated by many, especially young adults burdened with debts from unjustifiably high tuition for an education that failed to secure them a well-paying job. New York’s governor Andrew Cuomo has announced a plan to provide free college tuition. Residents of his state are already taxed at a rate that chases people and businesses out. Where will the funds come from?
Extending free medical care and free tuition to U.S. citizens would be fiscally impossible, so why not provide those goodies to illegal immigrants as well? Examining the impact of California’s inclusion of illegals in the state’s generous benefits, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIRUS) reports: “The annual expenditure of state and local tax dollars on services for that population is $25.3 billion. That total amounts to a yearly burden of about $2,370 for a household headed by a U.S. citizen.”
One myth advocated by the free tuition, open borders, and Medicare for all crowd, often unstated in public but discussed with the like-minded, is that drastic cuts in defense spending would finance these concepts. It’s time to do the math again. Defense accounts for only about 14% of the total federal budget, and the world isn’t getting any safer.
But don’t worry. A wave of the magic wand of idealism will take care of all that.
Illustration: Pixabay