Financial cure may not call for tax cuts
Bernie Scheffler, editor-in-chief

    An acquaintance, we’ll call him Grady O. Pointer (GOP), looked at his paycheck last week and decided he was receiving way too much money. He tried to give some of it back to his boss at the feed store. His boss was thrilled … he said Grady was hired for life.

   Grady would be the first to tell you that he’s not a wealthy man. In fact, he says he is in debt “up to my neck.”

   Now, surely, you’re thinking “What idiot gives some of his paycheck back to his boss when he’s in debt?”

   Don’t be so quick to condemn Grady. He was following the example of lawmakers he helped elect. He told me he doesn’t care about the larger financial situation. He figures if his boss is happy, he’ll always have a job.

   The 2001 tax cut was nothing more than a pacifier for the American public, but reaction was positive.

   “We’re getting money back? Don’t change anything. Don’t ask questions. I reckon they’re finally doing something right in Warshington,” Grady said, echoing the sentiment of many Americans.

   But returning money to the taxpayers is not always the right thing (and I expect to be called names for saying so).

   I would argue that it’s very rarely the right action to take, especially considering the massive financial problems America is facing in the next few years.

   Social Security is about to run out of money just as the baby boomers become eligible to receive benefits after a lifetime of payroll taxes. Health care coverage (Medicare) is in fiscal crisis. Social programs will have virtually no funding under the current budget.

   These problems are compounded by a slumping economy, yet our president has pledged more tax cuts. But don’t worry, he says America will still have plenty of money to invade Iraq. It’ll just have to stop monitoring the environment or something. The environmental squeeze is making it hard for his oil buddies to get richer anyway.

   Clearly this thinking, to use a term Dubya and our friend Grady would understand, is “bass-ackwards.”

   Maybe the coming election will bring a few more Democrats into power, or at least more moderate Republicans.

   America can’t afford to continue down the road it is currently traveling.