Friday, September 16, 2005

Angst and Taxes



Tax Time

Two hundred billion here, two hundred billion there…but what the hell they’ll just pass the bill on to us, and the next gang to take charge inside the Beltway.

Already the Republican leadership is saying that we can re-build New Orleans and Iraq if we just cut spending on some other programs. Why, we might even be able to continue to cut taxes, too!

This is a testing time for the American people and for Congress. Most especially it is a testing time for Democrats in Congress, who are going to have to stand up and make some tough decisions.

One of those is the decision to raise taxes, either with a war-time style “recovery tax” or by re-instating taxes that have already been cut. If the President, Congress, and the rest of us really want to rebuild New Orleans we have to be willing to sacrifice to do it.

The alternative is to push the “sacrifice” ahead to some future generation, which can cope with it while seated in the rubble of a deficit-savaged economy.


Thank God It’s Just Another Day

Do you remember, however dimly, when we thanked God it was Friday? When the weekend was the time for recovery from a work-filled week? When we looked forward to the escape from quotidian anxieties?

Now Friday is just the day before the next stressful bout with our own lives.

1 comment:

Art Jacobson said...

A friend of mine, Dave Atlas, posted the following comment to this entry over at the Radio Userland Data Port site. I think it merits re-quoting here:

A few hundred more billion into the pot of debt. We won't be around when it gets paid. In fact, no one will be around cause it won't ever get paid. It is a fiction. I predict we will find it far easier to print huge sums of nearly worthless money, thereby robbing people of their savings, rather than actually raise taxes or stop spending. Money and savings are like a mirage in the desert. Always distant, never quite arriving there, and elusive. A few hundred more billion into the pot of debt. We won't be around when it gets paid. In fact, no one will be around cause it won't ever get paid. It is a fiction. I predict we will find it far easier to print huge sums of nearly worthless money, thereby robbing people of their savings, rather than actually raise taxes or stop spending. Money and savings are like a mirage in the desert. Always distant, never quite arriving there, and elusive.