The next time you hear about the deficit, the level of government spending, or a new bailout program, please consider the following. We have it backwards: government spending should never justify collecting taxes. Instead, collecting taxes should first be fully justified by the specific government spending. If we cannot justify the government spending as absolutely necessary for the public good, then the dollar of taxes should never be collected.
Instead, today, taxes are routinely collected and THEN the politicians fight over how the taxes are going to be spent. In fact, government spends future tax revenues!
We have it backwards. The press has it backwards. The pundits have it backwards. Congress has it backwards. The White House has it backwards. The only debate out there seems to be about WHAT we spend the tax revenues on, instead of whether the tax revenues should be collected in the first place.
I think if we put government spending to such a test, we would decide against most of it, and our taxes would fall to a level that supported a vibrant economy with low unemployment and stable prices.
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