I'm Pete du Pont with the National Center for Policy Analysis. I've talked over the last couple of weeks about the reasons why the Bush tax cut is the right thing to do — even why it ought to be accelerated. There's the moral argument, the economic argument, the fairness argument.
But then I realized I left an important one out: the self-defense argument.
You must demand your money back out of pure self-defense. Otherwise, congress will spend it.
Why? Because that's what the congress does with money.
Comparing the records from 1940 onwards, nearly every time revenue increases occurred in one year, they were followed the next year by spending increases. In fact, on average, from 1940 to 1993, every $1 increase in revenues was followed by a 94 cent jump in spending. The pattern was broken after the republican victory year of 1994, but it has reasserted itself.
USC's Alan Shapiro worked out the stats and neither party seems inclined to restrain its urges. So you have to take away the money in the first place. Stop them before they spend again.
Those are my ideas, and at the NCPA we know ideas can change the world. I'm Pete du Pont. Next time, book review.