Even if all U.S. citizens were taxed almost 100 percent of their income, it would still not be enough to cancel the federal debt this year or next. We would still have to borrow money just to maintain the status quo. Our national debt is $16.8 trillion. That’s over $53,000 for every U.S. citizen. Our government borrows over 40 cents for every dollar it spends.
As our debt, plus interest, mushrooms, we are approaching a point where all the revenue we can possibly take in can only cover the interest payments and nothing is left for Medicare, Social Security, or defense. Increasing the tax rate does not necessarily increase revenue, and because high taxes worsen the economy the government would probably actually get less revenue.
The hard reality is that we must either drastically reduce lavishly expensive entitlements like Medicare and Social Security or lose them altogether.
Robert Wassman
VANCOUVER
