Cut everyone’s taxes to grow the economy

And cut spending to stop the $20 trillion debt

The U.S. is coming off the worst decade for economic growth since the GDP was invented as a measure, even worse than the Great Depression. To get out of this funk, one of the things Congress must be focused on is cutting taxes across the board, not robbing Peter to pay Paul, raising taxes on some Americans to give tax cuts to other Americans. Raising taxes in some of the most highly taxed areas in the country among wealthier Americans is not a recipe for growth. Individual tax cuts were the centerpiece of the 1981 Reagan tax cuts, and the major reason for the low-inflation growth explosion of the 1980s. That is the model we should be following, where everyone’s taxes, including business taxes, are cut.

Secondly, the U.S. has surpassed $20 trillion in debt and the current budget deficit is getting larger once again after a few years of falling. Given the massive emergency spending demands, Congress needs to recognize that the budget that they passed is a ceiling not a floor for spending. President Trump in his budget offered $4.5 trillion of real spending cuts over 10 years. Why aren’t those being implemented, if only to offset the emergency spending increases? Where are the Republican proposals in Congress to cut spending by trillions of dollars? During the primary, Donald Trump was supposed to be the fiscal liberal and it’s turned out that he is a fiscal hawk compared to what we’re seeing out of Congress. Cut spending, or go home. We’re going broke with $20 trillion of debt and growing because a weak Republican majority is unwilling to do the only responsible thing they can do about it, and that’s cut spending.         

Rick Manning is president of Americans for Limited Government (ALG), which says it is a “non-partisan, nationwide network committed to advancing free market reforms, private property rights and core American liberties.” This op-ed is drawn from a news release that ALG issued Nov. 10.