Every household understands that when a financial catastrophe occurs it means that some things have to be postponed, regardless of merit or want. You make do and you cut back in ways that really have a financial impact. This is what America has to do now.
Hurricanes in the South, American Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico and wildfires in California, Oregon and Montana have created a financial catastrophe. We can minimize the impact of that on our deficit and help rebuild by changing the following priorities: tax cuts, military spending, border wall spending and better enforcement of current financial laws.
Family members do not quit their jobs when they can’t pay the mortgage. They find second jobs. They find more revenue. Cutting taxes for the wealthy at a time when over three million people are without power in Puerto Rico is simply wrong and leading economists and recent history has proven when you cut taxes on the wealthy, they put the cash in Wall Street and not in job creation.
If anything, we should be looking at tax loopholes and more Internal Revenue investigators, not less. We outspend the world for the military and the Pentagon has admitted that it could save $25 billion by adopting better practices. They don’t need more money.
Reality is more people come to America by plane and then stay after their visas expire than cross the border. The wall may be a campaign promise, but it is a waste of money. The Trump administration has gleefully gutted many of our enforcement agencies that deal in financial matters. There is pending legislation to relax penalties for bad behavior. We should be looking for better enforcement, not less enforcement.
Often, people bring up foreign aid or funding the humanities as an extravagant waste of money. These expenditures are small, more like not going to one movie, rather than delaying the purchase of a new car. Now is the time for a bipartisan effort to help people rebuild our country in a responsible financial way, rather than promote the agenda of donors, the wealthy and filling old promises in a new financial climate.
Marilyn Getts
Salt Lake City