“You can’t just continue down the path to keep spending and adding to the debt.”– House Speaker Kevin McCarthy .
By Jack Bernard, contributing columnist
PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. | When I was a Georgia county commissioner, I was chair of the Association County Commissioners of Georgia’s tax committee. As chairman of a BOC, using cost/benefit analysis, I also got my board to lower annual local tax increases from 10 percent annually to 1 percent. When I got off the BOC, taxes went right back up.
As a fiscal conservative, I agree 100 percent with McCarthy’s statement. But I don’t agree with the methodology he proposes to use to achieve that end—the debt ceiling. Specifically, in the strange world of Washington, the debt limit must be raised to pay off past debt, money we already owe—not future obligations.
But McCarthy’s position is (my wording) –- “Let’s welch on our debts. That will serve ‘them’ right!”
Really? We, the American public, are the ‘them.’ And we will all suffer tremendously because the credit rating of the USA will go way down, crashing our economy. It will be more expensive for corporations, small businesses, and individuals to prosper and to finance everything and anything.
That is the main reason that the GOP raised the debt ceiling on three separate occasions under Trump. And the GOP leadership in the House and Senate gladly went along with raising the debt ceiling every time.
From a fiscal standpoint, the only realistic solution is for Congress to demand that:
- A cost-benefit analysis be completed for every major appropriations bill; and
- A cost-benefit analysis be used by Congressmen as their primary guide in voting;
- And then for Congress to realistically balance the budget every year.
We are overspending both of these domestically and in regard to national defense. Stop the partisan rhetoric! Either cut back or raise taxes, or both. There is no magic here. There is no other way to even out revenues and expenditures in order to balance the budget.
But the GOP and the Democrats are both unwilling to cut expenditures in a pragmatic manner. Our military budget keeps going up under both parties. There is pork buried in numerous bills. It takes hard work and lots of guts to pull such bills. And lots of irrational decisions continue on the national level.
For example, the United States’ national health care expenditures ($11,945 per capita) are double or triple that of many other nations that have full coverage for all citizens. And our healthcare status is worse. Private insurance, as well as Medicare and Medicaid inefficiencies, are a big part of the reason. Why can’t we insure healthcare like other wealthy nations? For instance, Canada is $5,370 per capita or France is $5,564. The answer is that Big Pharma and the insurance industry are buying off both parties.
As for Georgia, we should also use cost-benefit analysis. Gov. Brian Kemp should be commended for not wasting money and pushing to have well-thought-out state expenditures. But he is inconsistent. For example, why is Kemp sending money back to taxpayers when we have a healthcare uninsurance rate of nearly 14 percent? And the Feds will pay 90 percent of expansion costs? This makes no sense!
We need more logic for our taxes, and better results from our governments.
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