The battle lines are drawn between the President and the Republican-controlled House of Representatives over how best to address the deficit.
The Republican plan would not increase taxes, but would make massive cuts in entitlement programs including reductions in the future to medicare and medicaid. The President's plan would raise taxes on the so-called wealthy and not do much of anything to reduce the big entitlements.
And so the stage is set, for what may be the nation's most crucial battle over whether our future is one of less government and fewer taxes or whether we continue as a welfare state.
The President is emboldened by new polls that show Americans support taxing the rich to balance the budget. The president also knows, but won't admit, that there isn't enough money from just taxing the wealthy to pay for those programs and that eventually everyone's taxes will have to go up.
Well, for those who see the expansion of government as a path to perdition, one must hope that the prophecies of earlier scholars prove misguided. Especially the one often attributed to an 18th-century historian who wrote: "Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury."
Write and let me know what you think. I'm Bill Applegate.
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