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Federal Government Irony
Should dissatisfied taxpayers equal government expansion and higher taxes?

By Congresswoman Virginia Foxx

A September Gallup poll revealed that Americans’ trust in the federal government is at a low ebb—today most Americans trust the federal government less than they did during the Watergate scandal. At the same time, a new Reuters poll found Congress has an all-time low approval rating of 11 percent.

Findings such as these should be cause for soul-searching among government leaders. You would expect the federal government to slow its massive expansion in times of rampant public distrust. But the opposite is true. Congress recently approved a government-run health care program expansion to the tune of $35 billion that will be funded with cigarette taxes that fall disproportionately on the poor. This spring Congress also pushed a budget through that assumes a $400 billion tax increase that will hit working families hard.

America’s historically low level of trust in government coupled with a rapidly-expanding federal government is an exercise in irony. It seems like common sense to reign in spending and the government’s role in our lives during seasons of distrust and dissatisfaction. Instead the new Majority in Congress is dead set on creating additional expensive government programs.

Some people in Congress are fixated on the question, “how can the federal government solve people’s problems?” This is the wrong question. The better question is, “do Americans want the same people who brought us Hurricane Katrina relief, massive passport processing delays and the IRS to give us even more ‘solutions’ to our problems?” Or alternatively, why is Congress dreaming up new, ineffective programs that will soak up more of your hard-earned tax dollars?

Boil all of this down and you get a simple, jarring reality. Americans faced with financing a growing federal government out of their own pockets are right to question out of control spending.

Are Americans supposed to be inspired by a federal government that responded to Hurricane Katrina by spending $2.7 billion on trailers for temporary housing, only to leave 41,000 extra trailers rusting in depots across the country? According to news reports, now the government is taking a 60 percent loss as it tries to sell off thousands of these excess trailers. This is not good news for the taxpayers who ultimately foot the bill, and is certainly no reason for increased faith in our government.

For most Americans, taxes are their most tangible interaction with the federal government. Taxes are the primary mechanism fueling the expansion of so-called government ‘solutions’ at a time when millions are questioning the government’s ability to do the job right.

Taxes fund a staggering amount of federal spending: about $2.8 trillion in total. An enormous number like $2.8 trillion is almost impossible to wrap your mind around. So try thinking about the numbers in terms of time. A million seconds is equal to about twelve days. A trillion seconds, on the other hand, is the equivalent of 31,709 years.

These trillions of dollars translate into about $24,106 in federal spending for every household in America. More than three-quarters of this amount, or $18,873, funds just four spending categories: Social Security/Medicare, Defense spending, anti-poverty spending and interest on the federal debt.

Like you, I think that the taxes you already pay are more than enough. Yet, if recent tax cuts are allowed to expire (which will happen if the current budget is left in place) the average tax increase for over 100 million Americans will be $1,716. Forty four million married couples will be hit with a revived marriage penalty, a provision of the tax code abolished by recent tax cuts. The marriage penalty cost the average married couple $1,480 in 2000 before it was repealed.

Today there are millions of American’s who will be hit with a huge tax increase if Congress fails to act. Slapping them with a reinstituted marriage penalty or higher tax brackets would profoundly alter their financial situation. This must not happen.

Average Americans can’t afford to pay more taxes. That’s why I will continue to fight for low taxes and sustained tax cuts for hard-working families who are tired of an unresponsive and burdensome government reaching ever-deeper into their pockets. I hope you would agree: keeping taxes low for America’s families is not a matter of politics; it is a matter of listening to the taxpayers who have lost trust in the federal government.

Virginia Foxx is a United States Representative from North Carolina’s Fifth Congressional District. You may contact her office toll free at 1-866-677-8968 or e-mail her from her website, www.foxx.house.gov.