Make Them Give Back Our Money

Do you realize that you’ve got a better chance of winning a Powerball jackpot these days than getting a tax cut from the Clinton-Gore administration?

Sad, but true. Why? Because President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore believe that tax cuts are “irresponsible” and “time bombs” that will explode the deficit.

Never mind that even in this impressive economy, real people are still struggling to pay down their credit cards, provide day care for their children, save up for a down payment for their first home, meet that next college tuition bill or sock away a little extra for the future in an individual retirement account.

Never mind that Washington is taking more money from the American people as a percentage of the economy than at any time in American history and 32% more per person than when Clinton took office.

Never mind that official government estimates indicate a $1.6 trillion tax revenue surplus over the next 10 years.

Apparently, none of this matters to this administration. In fact, the president and vice president prefer to pass massive tax increases (on tobacco and long-distance phone service, for example) and create expensive new government programs rather than let you keep more of what you earn. That’s wrong.

It is time for Congress to pass the largest tax cut in American history. There is no excuse for trim-at-the-edges tax reductions. A massive, exciting tax cut would help real people struggling to make ends meet. It would give new life to an increasingly tired economic boom. It would make a dramatic down payment for genuine tax simplification.

Specifically, here is what Congress should do:

* Repeal the Bush-Clinton tax increases of 1990 and 1993. One helped push us into recession; the other hampered the initial recovery. Repeal would reduce the number of tax brackets from five to two.

* Abolish the marriage penalty. The penalty, which raises the tax bill many couples pay, is immoral. It punishes couples just for getting married.

* Eliminate the earnings tax on Social Security recipients between 65 and 69. We should cease discriminating against those senior citizens who wish to work.

* Cut the capital gains tax in half. The engine of economic growth is risk-taking. Encouraging risk-taking will mean a better standard of living and better paying jobs for middle America.

* Substantially cut or abolish inheritance or “death” taxes and junk the alternative minimum tax. Death taxes undermine family businesses and farms and impede growth. The AMT is playing havoc with growing numbers of middle-income Americans.

* Cut taxes for low-income Americans by raising the threshold at which taxpayers enter the 15% tax bracket. Struggling wage-earners and single people without children constantly are finding that their hard-won pay raises are kicking them into higher tax brackets. No wonder that, despite the good times, many Americans still feel that they are on a treadmill and the treadmill is winning. Now, a single person starts paying federal income taxes, at the rate of 15%, at about $7,000 of taxable income. This reform would raise the bar to a little more than $10,000. A family of four now enters the 15% tax bracket at about $18,000 of taxable income. This would raise the bar to $27,000.

* Cut taxes for middle-income Americans by boosting the 15% bracket. A single person today jumps from the 15% bracket to the 28% bracket at about $25,000 of taxable income. We should raise the bar to $38,000. A family of four today jumps to the 28% tax bracket at about $42,000 of taxable income; this should go to $63,000.

* Get rid of the arbitrary, complicated income caps that prevent millions of middle-class families from fully using the child tax credits enacted last year. Why punish people trying to keep more of their own money?

* Pass the Tax Code Termination Act. Abolish the corrupt, complex tax code by the end of 2002. Replace it with a pro-growth, pro-family, single rate system that’s a wide, deep and permanent tax cut for everyone. In the process, end the IRS as we know it.

The bottom line: It’s our money, not Washington’s. If we don’t demand that Washington give us our money back, rest assured that they’re going to find a way to waste it on something foolish.

In a democracy, should it really be easier to win the lottery than to be allowed to keep more of what you earn?