Tax revenue versus spending

Do you remember the one-two punch of the fiscal cliff and sequester during Barack Obama's presidency? During that time, Democrats pushed hard the idea that voters wanted to balance taxes and spending cuts as a way to address our high deficits.

The fiscal cliff came first. Some Republicans tried to push a balanced approach. Democrats countered that the fiscal cliff was supposed to focus on taxes since the sequester was about spending. Many Republicans agreed, and a bipartisan deal was made to increase tax revenues.

When the sequester approached, Democrats once again pushed the idea that voters wanted a balanced approach. They attacked Republicans for their reluctance to compromise and create a balanced solution to the sequester. Eventually, Republicans decided to allow the sequester to take place rather than further increase taxes. As a side note, Democrats have tried to take full credit of the savings that resulted from the sequester despite trying to pin the entirety of the blame for the negatives onto the Republican party.

I always thought this was a corny tactic. Democrats insisted that voters wanting a balanced solution meant that Republicans should allow the Democrats a 75/25 split. Because Republicans offered a 50/50 split, they were attacked for their unwillingness to compromise.

As much as the Democrats' political game ticked me off, I kind of miss those days. The updated views of the Democrats have gotten even worse. They are no longer mentioning the desire for balance. They now refer to the spending of other people's money as a generous investment. The more they spend other people's money, the better we are supposed to view their policies.

The deficit is no longer viewed as a balance between tax revenue and spending. Instead, we are viewing this as a matter of increasing taxes more than we increase spending. They aren't even citing voters. They are simply telling us how this is supposed to work. We went from a 50/50 argument being used as an excuse for a 75/25 split to ignoring the 50/50 argument in favor of a 125/-25 split.

Just the fact that voters thought we should have an even split should have been considered an enormous victory for the Democrats. We are actually a high-tax nation. We also have a government that treats high spending as a good thing. This should not be viewed as equal. We do not have a tax problem. We have a spending problem.

This tax-and-spend solution has its limits. Even the richest of the rich don’t have infinite resources. Eventually, the government will run out of other people's money. Instead of acting like we can always raise taxes, we need to start addressing the bigger problem. We need to cut spending.