Budget and Taxes

If you've ever tried to sit down and create a family budget, you know how tough the decision-making process can be. There are fixed costs, fluctuating costs, long-term goals and short-term goals and always those pesky reserves needed for unexpected contingencies. When you finish, whether you're budgeting a million-dollar income or (like most of us) much, much less, what you may have is a values document. I say "may" because, let's face it, some budgets have no room for anything but the basic necessities--food, shelter, and clothing. There are few discretionary decisions to be made. 

Government budgeting, however, is a little different; a federal (or state or local) budget is a values document on steroids. Not only does spending reflect values, but sources of income do as well, and both legislators and those in the executive branch influence the final product. What's the major source of income? Wealthy individuals? The middle class? Corporations? Estate taxes? Capital gains? What deductions are allowed--and who most benefits? What's the relationship between deep-pocket donors, tax rates, and deductions?

All those are issues before we even get to expenditures. How much do we put into education, the environment, health, welfare, infrastructure, defense, payments on our burgeoning national debt, and aid to countries struggling with war, famine, natural disasters, or persistent poverty?

All of this reflects on who we are as a people.