Tax Back Act

Should five per cent appear too small
Be thankful I don't take it all
'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah I'm the taxman
--The Beatles

Having never met a tax cut I didn't like, I'm hesitant to criticize President-elect Obama's tax cut proposal.

But people should be questioning whether this plan is really a tax cut. From where I sit, the definition of a tax cut should be government returning wealth to individuals--wealth that was rightfully each individual's in the first place. Lacking those funds, government should subsequently reduce its spending in kind.

In President-elect Obama's case (and in cases previously such as President Bush's various tax rebates), government does not intend on reducing spending. On the contrary, proposed 'stimulus' plans aim at dramatically stepping up outlays. These programs cannot be funded from the deeply red current budget.

So, to fund the proposed $300 billion in tax cuts, government has to either a) borrow money, or b) print it.

The result is more debt or currency debasement--neither of which returns wealth to the citizenry.

Until tax cuts are paired with commensurate reduction in government spending, it's hard to objectively view such initiatives as much more than programs of inflation.