Off The Editor’s Desk – 1-1-2020
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Federal Gov. is taking in more, spending much more
I thought that when Donald Trump became president that he would attempt to reduce the federal debt. He has made many spending cuts, but Congress keeps spending more money than the Federal Government takes in. The debt has passed the $23 trillion mark.
With all eyes on the Impeachment proceedings, we hardly noticed that Congress passed a $1.4 trillion dollar spending bill, which was signed by the president.
Since Trump’s big tax reduction program went into effect, one million more people have joined the work force. It was reported last week that the average family now has an additional $5,000 in annual income. All this has led the federal government to collect more money than it has ever done in the past. But, the way I see it, is that for every new dollar that is collected, Congress creates a buck and a half of new spending.
In that $1.4 trillion spending bill, about sixty-percent of that money is earmarked for the Department of Transportation, the military, and domestic initiatives. Big winners are our highway bridges and short line railroads and urban rail.
The big loser is the electric vehicle. Congress was set to raise the cap on the $7,500 electric car tax credit to 600,000 vehicles from 200,000 vehicles until President Trump shut down that program.
I can’t say this spending bill is bad. We all know that our highway bridges are in need of work and all eyes are on making rail lines work especially, the Eau Claire to the twin cities route. And, for those of us that might be thinking that an electric car is in our future, we will be paying for it ourselves, and not asking the government for funding.
Now as I watched all the Democrat candidates running for president, they all want to scrap Trump’s Tax Plan that gave most of us a break in our federal income tax. Those candidates all say it is only for the rich. My last year’s tax was lower because of the new rates and my income is not that big. Obama put the wealthy at, those making more than $250,000 annually. I have no way of knowing if that is where you can start calling yourself wealthy, but I know that my income is not anywhere near that figure.
So, as I watched Amy Klobuchar, from the People’s Republic of Minnesota, denounce the tax break that we all got, I was reminded about the Democratic candidate from Minnesota running against Ronald Regan in 1984. Walter Mondale, former Vice President, campaigned that he would raise taxes if he were elected president.
Well, when the votes were counted and the Electoral College members chosen, Mondale fell short, by a count of 525 for Regan and 13 for Mondale. He only carried his home state of Minnesota plus Washington D.C. Apparently, 1984 voters were not interested in paying higher taxes and that makes me wonder if voters of today want higher taxes?
As for me, I have been paying federal income taxes for sixty years and I have to question, have I done my duty?
Thanks for reading! ~Carlton