Editorials - Lubbock Online.com This Is Tax `Relief'?

Published: Wednesday, July 15, 1998






The editorials represent the opinion of the





This Is Tax `Relief'?

THE PLEASANT REALITY that the economy is on a roll and that Americans are generally contented with their lot apparently has many in Congress thinking: Why stretch for a big tax cut? Why rock the boat now?

The people on Capitol Hill seem to have forgotten that it was not many months ago that voters turned very conservative and decisively put Republicans in the driver's seat in Congress. It was a resounding message not to be forgotten, a call for lower taxes and less spending by the federal government.

Evidence that Congress is forgetful comes in the form of a miserly tax cut being sponsored by Republican leaders. In the Senate, a piddling $30 billion intax cuts are being proposed. The House has passed $101 billion in cuts, and while that sounds impressive, it is far from significant tax relief.

With a compromise in order, House Speaker Newt Gingrich says tax cuts of around $60 billion might be all that's needed.

We beg to differ. For several years now Americans have been responsible for a major revving of the U.S. economy. But instead of being rewarded with substantial tax relief, citizens have watched with dismay as the federal government has spent money as fast as the tax man could bring it in.

A $60 billion cut out of a $1 trillion budget?

It is a fact, according to Eric V. Schlecht, congressional relations man for the National Taxpayers Union, that the average American family today pays more in taxes than for food, clothing, and shelter combined.

A $60-billion-dollar tax cut over five years, out of a federal budget totaling more than $1 trillion a year is a mere pittance. Over that five year period, according to Mr. Schlect's calculations, the federal government will haul in, under last year's budget agreement, $9.3 trillion in taxes.

The way Mr. Schlecht figures it, even with trimming taxes by $60 billion, the federal government still will collect 99.4 percent of the revenues it is scheduled to collect over the next five years. Put another way, we are looking at the prospect of a 0.6 percent tax cut.

Tax "relief"? Surely they jest.

Back in 1981, Ronald Reagan proposed to trim taxes by $1.6 trillion in current dollars. That was a bit too rich for Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill, yet that big Democratic spender came up with a solid counter-proposal: a "fiscally responsible" tax cut of his own amounting to $1.3 trillion over five years in current dollars.

It makes quite a contrast: One of the leading liberals in 20th-century politics offering a $1.3 trillion dollar tax cut and calling it responsible; today's congressional Republicans offering a $60 billion cut and hailing it as "major."

No wonder people are calling this one a "do-nothing" Congress.