Rick Santorum: America needs tax relief, not higher taxes and more government

Guest Column By Rick Santorum

When it comes to the economy and our growing deficits, President Obama is losing not only his bully pulpit but the American people. His recent budget speech was more confirmation that he simply does not get what the voters told him last November. More importantly, his speech revealed, yet again, that he does not understand what our economy needs and what the American people deserve: a dynamic economic plan to reinvigorate the economy and empower more Americans.

Having entered office promising to control our growing debt (he mentioned the debt and deficit 15 times in his first Joint Session speech to Congress in February of 2009), he has now increased it by $4 trillion. But even after submitting his 2012 budget to great fanfare earlier this year, the President has tried to regain his fiscal credibility by announcing a renewed commitment to deficit reduction with a new budget plan. His solution? Claiming to cut spending and promising to raise taxes. This renewed effort will not work and it will not sell.

Most analysts have focused on the lack of specifics in the President’s speech. But there were plenty of things he did say that should cause great concern. Once again President Obama revealed his true view of America when he said “we would not be a great country without those commitments," i.e., Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid. While very few Americans want to eradicate these programs, most of us recognize they do need reform. But to say that we were not a great country before, say, FDR's or LBJ's domestic policies, is to argue America is only great when it commits to unstoppably left-wing programs with no spending restraint.

As to the rest of what he said, his commitment to “keep annual domestic spending low” is simply not credible when it was his administration that produced almost $900 billion in new debt with just its stimulus package; his administration that proposed increasing the Department of Education budget by more than $4 billion this year; and his administration that fought cuts of $20 billion in the most recent budget battle that concluded earlier this month.

Furthermore, we have now received “Failed Democratic Fiscal Playbook 4.0” with the calls for increased taxes. Americans rejected such nostrums in 1984; Bill Clinton was forced to apologize in 1995 for raising taxes; and President Obama conceded last year he would extend the Bush tax cuts, even if temporarily. But here we go again, with the call from the President to raise taxes on those making more than $250,000 a year.

The President’s plan is nothing short of class warfare meant to shore up his liberal base.Raising taxes, even on those who earn more than $250,000 a year, will not come anywhere close to solving our increasing debt and it will reduce incentives exactly the wrong sector of the economy. This is political malfeasance considering unemployment hovering close to 9 percent. Even the President’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility argued for cutting—not raising—current marginal tax rates. And, as others have shown, even if we absurdly taxed the wealthy at 100 percent of their earnings, we would still have massive budget deficits.

A little commonsense is in order: First, Americans are not paying too little in taxes; the government is spending too much. Second, assuming we did try to actually “soak” the wealthy in America, we would be raising taxes on a lot of people who had no idea they were rich and never behaved that way. Third, even if the administration structured its tax increases to those earning more than one million dollars a year, a vast majority of those affected would be small business owners—those responsible for most of the new jobs created each year in America.

Raising taxes on any sector of Americans is the wrong answer to our economic problems, especially now. We should push for more tax cuts to spur investment and savings. What tax cuts accomplish is economic growth: more jobs, more investment, more savings, and, ultimately, a larger tax base. That is the way to reinvigorate our economy and empower more Americans.

Let’s meet the President’s tired proposal of tax increases with a renewed call on behalf of free enterprise, a renewed call on behalf of the American workforce, a renewed call on behalf of the American spirit: “Lower taxes, less spending!” That is the solution I have long endorsed and now, more than ever, it is the growth solution America needs.

Rick Santorm, former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, is considering a run for the Republican nomination for President.