Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are each trying to purchase votes with more and more outlandish and irresponsible tax and spending policies. Should the policies of either candidate be enacted, the national deficit and debt will skyrocket. But We the People don’t yet care enough to demand fiscal responsibility from our “leaders.”
I’ve written before that if there’s one principle on which our Democratic and Republican “leaders” agree on, it’s that our fiscal policies should be conducted with as much irresponsibility as possible: Not that anyone would admit to believing in irresponsibility, but the actions of our “leaders” speak louder than any blather or hot air either would want to spew forth. One need look no further than the policy proposals offered by Harris and Trump for proof.
According to the Committee for a Responsible Budget, among the new programs Harris wants to implement are those which would:
- Expand the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax credit;
- Expand subsidies for Obamacare;
- Create subsidies for first-time homeowners;
- Expand subsidies for manufacturing, research, and small businesses;
- Expand access and funding for pre-k and child care;
- Establish national paid family and medical leave;
- Support affordable and quality education;
- Increase long-term care funding and support family caregivers
- Eliminate taxes on tips.
Harris also favors various tax increases, especially an increase in the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, and ending the Trump tax cuts for those who earn more than $400,000 a year. But her plans to increase revenue come nowhere near to covering the expense of the new programs she proposals. The CRFB estimates that implementation of all her proposals could add up to $8.1 trillion dollars to the national debt over the next ten years.
The CFRB reports that although Trump has not yet produced as long a wish list of spending programs as Harris’s, he has presented an ambitious program of tax cuts. He would eliminate taxes on tips, overtime, and Social Security benefits, make interest on car payments tax deductible, and retain the tax cuts enacted during his first term. He would also cut the corporate tax rate on domestic manufacturers to 15%. These tax cuts, together with his plans to spend more on border security and national defense, could add up to $15.15 trillion to the deficit over the next ten years.
As awful as these figures may seem to those who believe in fiscal responsibility, they’re not altogether surprising. Rather, they’re the logical extension of ongoing Democratic and Republican fiscal policies. Democrats have long maintained that the government can pay for all their programs if it simply taxes “the rich.” Republicans claim that if the government simply cuts taxes enough, the tax cuts will “pay for themselves” through increased taxable economic activity.
The fact that both theories are wrong does not deter our “leaders” from continuing to pursue them. After all, spending increases are normally more popular with more people than spending cuts, and practically everyone likes tax cuts more than tax increases. Politicians can only get away with spending cuts and tax increases if those who must bear the brunt of the cuts or increases are too few in number to be dangerous at election time. Incidentally, this is why neither Harris nor Trump nor any other political “leader” has offered any plan to put Social Security on a more secure financial basis: Any realistic plan would require either higher taxes or reduced benefits for too many millions of voters to make fixing Social Security politically realistic at this time.
So while Harris’s extravagant spending plans and Trump’s extravagant tax cuts will drive up deficits and the national debt, they’ll at least help one of the candidates win the White House next month. Moreover, this pattern of fiscally irresponsible proposals from both Democrats and Republicans will continue as long as We the People continue to crave the favors with which our “leaders” seek to buy our votes. Not until we insist on fiscal responsibility will our “leaders” start to provide it.
Malcolm L. Cross has lived in Stephenville since 1987 and taught politics and government at Tarleton for 36 years, retiring in 2023. His political and civic activities include service on the Stephenville City Council (2000-2014) and on the Erath County Republican Executive Committee (1990-2024). He was Mayor pro-tem of Stephenville from 2008 to 2014. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Stephenville
Economic Development Authority since 2018 and as chair of the Erath County Appraisal District’s Appraisal Review Board since 2015. He is also a member of the Stephenville Rotary Club, the Board of Vestry of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, and the Executive Committee of the Boy Scouts’ Pecan Valley District. Views expressed in this column are his and do not reflect those of The Flash as a whole.
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