Daily Archives: July 26, 2006

Raising Taxes versus Lowering Spending

Every few months, our Senators and Congress-men and women debate taxes and whether or not to raise, lower, keep them steady, or blame others for doing so.

The main thing that I notice during this ridiculous political fights is that nobody ever talks about the most basic financial wisdom: Spend Less Than You Earn. Why doesn’t this apply to governments as well as individuals? Most people in Congress are very wealthy and presumably understand basic financial principles of wealth-building quite well. So why can’t they all exercise restraint and simply spend less? Raising taxes to cover budget shortfalls makes me very nervous because there is no amount of money that cannot be overspent! Raising taxes is not a real solution, just as earning more money isn’t a solution to your bad spending habits.