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How to Fix the Deficit Without Raising Taxes
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17055 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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Date : |
8 / 1990 |
3,073 Words |
| Author
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Alan L. Keyes
Alan Keyes is currently a resident scholar at the American
Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. He was assistant
secretary of state for international organizational affairs
from 1985-87. |
On May 7, the White House and congressional leaders convened closed-door budget negotiations "without preconditions" and with "all options on the table.” There was much speculation at the time that these phrases indicated that President Bush was distancing himself from his "read-my-lips" no-new-taxes campaign pledge.
As was to be expected, the usual arbiters of opinion promptly stepped up their propaganda campaign for new taxes. The New York Times, for instance, advised its readers to accept new taxes "without fear,” inasmuch as "sizeable tax increase" are "necessary" to reduce the federal deficit.
The budget summit was convened because the deficit is the nation's most serious economic problem, and it is worse than was estimated early in 1990. Taxpayers deserve a thoughtful and solemn solution. But the history of budget summits over the past decade indicates that the deficit will not be fixed. The outcome is likely to be increased taxes, failure to restrain spending, and higher deficits. In addition, the massive waste, fraud, and mismanagement of our tax dollars will continue.
Knowledgeable observers may be forgiven for drawing the conclusion that the so-called budget summit is actually a tax increase summit; that it is partly a public relations effort to wear down popular resistance to new taxes; that the real issues at these discussions are how to ire of the American people and how the president can appear to keep his pledge.
It would not be surprising if the budget summit culminates in a deal similar to the one that party leaders used last
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