OPINION: Obama’s approach is 180 degrees out of line

President Reagan was confronted by the Democrats demanding that he sign a tax increase bill. He responded that he would only sign it if there were significant cuts in government spending. They agreed, promising to make cuts in spending later if he would just sign their tax bill. He signed the bill. The spending cuts never happened.

The same thing happened to President Bush the First. After he promised “watch my lips, no new taxes,” they came to him with the same promise. They argued that they had to have revenue to finance the government. He demanded spending cuts in exchange for his signature. They promised. He signed. The spending cuts never happened.
So now comes President Obama demanding massive new taxes. “Lets get the tax thing done now, and we will address spending cuts after the first of the year.” The Republicans are right not to trust that promise. They have been burned twice already. If they make a deal that if they pass the tax bill now, they can deal with the spending problem next year, you can be assured that the spending cuts will never happen.

Obama’s approach is 180 degrees out of line anyway. It is impossible to know how much money is needed to finance the government until after the spending cuts are in place. Congress needs to do a serious job of reducing the cost of government by trimming all areas of spending. They should start with the federal payroll. We have far too many people working for the government. So the first item ought to be a total ban on future government hiring. When someone retires, fill their job with people already on the payroll who are not needed in their present job. There are thousands of them.

Next, all the president’s czars need to be fired, their staff and offices transferred to the appropriate cabinet officer. We do not need two cabinets basically doing the same job.

Then those same cabinet officers need to form a commission to draw a flow chart of their offices to see where they are duplicating services with other cabinet offices. For example, why is the Department of Agriculture handing out food stamps? They are not a poverty branch of government. Other cabinets have food programs. Let them combine the stamps with their existing programs.

And while we are at it, we need an extensive review of eligibility for food stamps. Better yet, let’s dump the whole thing and go to a food aid program that gives boxes of food to those who are in need of food assistance. Those boxes must contain only foods of high nutritional value.

Now, how about that prison in Illinois that the government just purchased. We do not need that because we should never move GITMO prisoners to stateside prisons. Have the GSA do an inventory of unneeded property and sell them, including that prison, to the highest bidder. That would bring in some cash and add new property to the state tax rolls.

I am convinced that a thorough cleansing of the government budget, if we had a budget, would dramatically reduce if not eliminate the need for any tax increases. Congress and the President need to get the horse in front of the cart.

Frank Gillispie is founder of The Madison County Journal. His e-mail address is frank@frankgillispie.com. His website can be accessed at http://www.frankgillispie.com/gillispieonline.