Tax Me

Whaddya know? If the government cuts its main source of revenue, it ends up costing them. Billions of American dollars.

Right back at ya, Mr. President.

Listen up, government. I'd much rather pay out more money in taxes and know that the soldiers you got into an inadvisable war are safer with the proper body armor. I'd rather have forty bucks less and know that kids without a lot of money will have the subsidized loans that I had when I went to college, or the kids without any money can get Pell Grants. I'd rather know that more elderly people can afford their medicine and housing, which many of them won't with these proposed budget cuts.

I have absolutely no mind for money. But even I know we tried trickle-down economics in the '80s and it didn't work, and that's what Bush wants to do with this budget. It doesn't matter what lofty statistics you toss at me. When blue-collar workers are being laid off in scads and Massachusetts has its highest foreclosure rate ever, the economy is not good. I haven't talked to anyone who feels comfortable with the amount of money they're making. Healthcare costs are high, energy costs are high, and people are getting pinched a little bit everywhere, which adds up to a lot of problems. My Mom filed her taxes this weekend, and she found out that not only is my brother's college raising tuition, but that her tax credit for paying is tuition is less, so she's paying more for his education.

Cutting taxes, especially during a time of war, is the dumbest thing this country can do. War is expensive, and the country needs to pay for it. And not on the backs of my generation, or the next, but now, while it's happening. Bush is trying to pass the buck to the next President by both cutting taxes and paying for a costly war so he comes out looking good. Don't buy into it. These tax cuts, which shouldn't have happened in the first place, should not be made permanent.