Cal Thomas: Stop the bleeding

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday April 18th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next: tax day. Like many Americans, you may be glad April 15th is behind us for 2024. But WORLD commentator Cal Thomas says the worst is yet to come, unless we act.

CAL THOMAS: Was it as bad for you as it was for me? Sending Washington money we need, but Washington doesn’t, I mean?

It’s not just the fact that only 40% of the nation pays taxes that bothers me. It’s the waste and unnecessary programs and agencies that have long outlived whatever usefulness they may have once had. And still President Joe Biden’s proposed budget would raise taxes without cutting a single dollar from our unsustainable $34 trillion debt.

As The Washington Times reported: “[Biden] wants to impose a 25% minimum tax on all income not currently taxed — including unrealized gains on assets — for Americans with a net worth of $100 million. Mr. Biden has also urged Congress to raise the corporate tax rate to 28% up from 21%.”

No American should be forced to endure the annual torture of compiling records and filling out tax returns. Many other nations have far simpler systems. Even the instructions for filling out forms for the IRS need instructions to understand. It is why so many must hire tax attorneys, who fulfill the role of language translators.

Here’s one example: Enter your gross farming and fishing income reported on Form 4835, line 7; Schedule K-1 (Form 1065), box 14, code B….” It goes on like that for another line, but in case you don’t follow, the section ends with the helpful note, “See instructions.”

The Congressional Budget Office predicts the U.S. will surpass $54 trillion dollars in the next decade. That’s debt. That’s more than $5 billion of debt daily, and more than $200 million every hour. If you want to get really granular, it means $3 million every minute or $60,000 every second.

If that’s not enough to make your blood boil, consider a tiny fraction of the misspending that occurs in Washington. For the past nine years, Republican Senator from Kentucky Rand Paul has published a “Festivus Report” exposing outrageous examples of unnecessary federal spending. In his latest report he writes: “I am highlighting a whopping $900,000,000,000 of waste, including an NIH grant to study Russian cats walking on a treadmill.” He also cites, “$6 million to promote tourism in Egypt, and $200 million to ‘struggling artists’ like Post Malone, Chris Brown, and Lil Wayne.”

There’s much more. Google “Festivus Report” and be aghast at what we are doing to ourselves. Ultimately, this is the fault of voters who won’t elect politicians to restore America’s financial future and balance the budget.

If too many voters keep fueling the gravy train, the only option will be an Article V constitutional convention, provided by the Founders for such a moment we are now facing.

Our current oppressive tax system can be analogized to Dracula, who is never satisfied with the blood he sucks out of one victim, but constantly seeks new prey. We must drive a metaphorical stake in the heart of our blood-sucking government, or we will end up driving one in ourselves and the country we love.

I’m Cal Thomas.

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