This political cartoon draws on one of the left’s favorite talking points — the idea the federal government would be burdened far more from letting individuals keep more of what they’ve lawfully earned than by scrapping allegedly minuscule expenses for welfare programs.
For the sake of this argument, let’s disregard the basic premise that government doesn’t earn tax revenue — it takes it by force. That should be a given. In order to be taken seriously about curbing the substantial federal deficit, spending cuts have to be on the table. If they’re not, raising taxes is really the only option left, given that you’re okay with slowing economic growth.
Of course, Democrats are not the only responsible part for the current state of the federal government’s budgetary issues. Republicans have contributed to this problem to, mainly through mismanaged defense contracts. There is a shared responsibility, and ideally there should be a shared solution.
Unfortunately, no administration in the past century has managed to cut spending at all. At best, several conservative presidents and their allies in Congress have managed to slow the growth of the deficit.
Lawmakers need to break this cycle if there is to be any hope at achieving another surplus. But to do this, Democrats have to give up on this idea that another individual’s hard-earned dollars belong to them.
~ Facts Not Memes
