The Massachusetts House of Representatives’ announcement of the 2010 fiscal year budget brought along with it disappointing news of impending funding cuts to spending programs, community aid, low-income renter aid and more. In an effort to compensate for generous tax cuts made throughout the state before the current economic downturn, the budget deficit calls for cutbacks to programs in lieu of raising taxes. Representatives argue that raising taxes during a depression is debilitating to lower-income taxpayers, but by that same token, cutting programs created to aid low-income citizens will yield similarly damaging effects. Meanwhile, members of the higher income brackets, who would otherwise be contributing to the deficit if taxes were raised, remain unaffected by the cutting of spending programs.
Although this country is in the midst of a financial recession, some believe is comparable to the Great Depression, not every decision made that will ease the blow of the recession can be justified. It is the lowest income brackets that endure the worst of a recession’s symptoms, and it is times like these when low-income aid programs are needed the most. If these taxpayers lose aid, they will be even less able to stimulate the consumer economy, thus activating a fruitless cycle where the poor get poorer, the rich remain unscathed and the economy continues to suffer.
Imposed tax raises are never going to be received positively, whether the economy is sound or unstable. But it doesn’t take an economics major to see that the worse the nation’s financial state becomes, the worse-off the nation’s poorest citizens become. If taxes are raised ‘- and if policy is revised so that tax increases are proportionate to income instead of being fixed across income brackets as they are now ‘- every taxpayer, rich or poor, contributes to mitigating the deficit as much or as little as they are able. And more importantly, aid programs continue helping those who need them.
The House needs to reconsider what it means to choose the lesser of two evils in a difficult situation like this one. The chaos of a financial recession makes it easy for the nation’s decision-makers to ignore or obscure the consequences of instant-gratification actions, but now more than ever is not a time to take the easy way out. Raising taxes may be immediately unpopular, but the long-term damages that will be inflicted on those who benefit from spending programs may prove to be even less popular in the long run.
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