At least that is what most sane households would do, but this is the federal government we’re talking about. Major news today.. tax revenue is plummeting. Associated Press reports:
The recession is starving the government of tax revenue, just as the president and Congress are piling a major expansion of health care and other programs on the nation’s plate and struggling to find money to pay the tab.
The numbers could hardly be more stark: Tax receipts are on pace to drop 18 percent this year, the biggest single-year decline since the Great Depression, while the federal deficit balloons to a record $1.8 trillion.
Other figures in an Associated Press analysis underscore the recession’s impact: Individual income tax receipts are down 22 percent from a year ago. Corporate income taxes are down 57 percent. Social Security tax receipts could drop for only the second time since 1940, and Medicare taxes are on pace to drop for only the third time ever. (read the rest)
Conventional wisdom says that when you lose income, you cut spending. Oh, but fortunately our President and Democrat-controlled Congress is above convention wisdom. They can just go to the magical money tree and get some more. Well they can always print money – hey what’s the big deal if we see more inflation and see the value of the dollar drop more? At least we’ll have our social programs.
And they’re not, ahem, going to tax the middle class. Right. I wonder when they’ll figure out raising taxes won’t help this problem either.