Now that we have new representatives, it's time to advance immediately on them and address the issue that can both rebuild our economy and relieve us of government oppression: tax reform.
As I began to point out in last week's article, Congress' plan to subsidize all its outrageous borrowing and spending will demand far more than the tax man's just collecting on expired Bush tax cuts. There are a host of other levies coming down the turnpike from Washington.
Who isn't already completely fed up with the feds' utter waste of our tax monies? Just a week ago, war analysts and government auditors reported that only 10 percent of U.S. taxpayers' money being poured into Afghanistan is actually being used to stabilize the country, with as much as $1 billion in aid ending up in the hands of the Taliban and other insurgency groups!
When a nation is in economic peril, who in their right minds spend tens of millions of taxpayers' dollars to fund a president's 10-day tour to India, Indonesia, China, Japan and South Korea? Couldn't we have sent any other ambassador, who wouldn't have required the accompaniment of such a massive security, political, corporate and media entourage?
So first, there's all that federal waste happening, which already has cost taxpayers exorbitant amounts. It has been estimated by watchdog organizations that the feds waste nearly $1 trillion every year.
Second, as I itemized last week, the expiring Bush tax cuts are on the imminent horizon, which, if they were to expire, would cost Americans a minimum of $3.8 trillion over the next 10 years.
And then there are the inevitable taxes that are coming because of the feds' massive and compounding deficits and debts. Even if all the Bush tax cuts were repealed, the Congressional Budget Office concludes that the deficit would be nearly $1.1 trillion in 2011. The cumulative deficit from 2010 to 2019 under President Barack Obama's proposals would total $9.3 trillion. And the national debt in 2020 would top $24.5 trillion, exceeding the gross domestic product projection for 2019 of $22.8 trillion. And here's the kicker: By 2020, half of income tax revenue would go toward paying interest on that $24 trillion national debt.