The $20 Bill

Coming out of the Revolutionary War we, as a nation, were broke. We’d put the War on our Colonial Express Card and had two options: pay the bill or, in essence, file for bankruptcy. Now, it would have been easy to walk away from our creditors. It wouldn’t have been shocking to anyone, considering the enormity of the task we’d just completed – after all, it was the British Empire we’d defeated. Who knows, considering the chinks in the armor we’d just uncovered, our creditors may not have even held it against us. We still had untold natural resources to exploit – we would have been fine.

But we didn’t walk away. We paid those bills and we established ourselves as an honorable nation. Why, because a tough, arrogant, and supremely honorable man named Alexander Hamilton demanded that we meet our financial obligations. We paid taxes, we paid fees, we paid higher prices, and we did without. Why? Because we had to in order to do what was right. He devised a plan, Congress passed it, President Washington signed it into law, it was enacted, and it worked. Our nation started honorably and it/we rose to unprecedented heights in the modern world. Yes, we exploited, we abused, we stole, and we manipulated on our way to world dominance – many, many books have been rightly written about the abuses and the ugliness perpetrated by this country and its government. However, what makes this nation so great is that we also have found ways, time and time again, to rise to the challenge our forefathers built into the language of the Constitution.

Why is this relevant? Hmm…, let me think. We pay $10 Billion a month to fund the occupation in Iraq. We just committed $700 Billion to bail out the greedy bastards that caused our current financial mess. Oh yeah, and 8 years ago we elected the guy who promised to piss away a $1.5 Trillion surplus by giving us $300 rebate checks as opposed to either paying down our enormous national debt or bolstering our crumbling Social Security/Medicare programs. The result is that our national debt is now $10 Trillion dollars on the books, and around $50 Trillion off the books. Again, $50 Trillion - for crying out loud, we broke the damn debt clock in Times Square.

And what do the politicians propose to fix this mess? Tax cuts. Capital gains cuts, income tax cuts, canceling taxes on cash taken out of IRA’s, etc. How does bringing in less money help us when we’re spending more and more? Now I get it, and no, I’m not naïve – I know these are moves designed to put more cash into the economy. But what the fu(K, we’re talking $50 Trillion here. We might want to start making some principle only payments soon before things really get out of control.

Which brings me back to the election. At the VP debate, (insert snarky comment here) Palin slammed Senator Biden for his assertion that a fair tax system, in which the richest (shockingly) pay a larger share of the tax burden, is patriotic. Whatever their issues were on that, and whichever tax plan gets enacted, is irrelevant – neither will do enough. Point blank, it is patriotic to pay more taxes, for everyone to pay more taxes. We need another Alexander Hamilton to come along, grab us by the scruff of our collective neck and force us to pay until it hurts so that we can reestablish our national honor, not to mention credit rating in the world.

Yes, I said it: we need to raise taxes across the board. Now, you can give me all the accounting and theoretical BS you want, but once we have the current market and banking situation stabilized, we to significantly raise taxes, tighten our belts, and dramatically cut government spending. Look, I don’t want to pay more taxes. I hate taxes, not to mention all the ridiculous fees I’m now paying for things my taxes used to cover. But you know what I enjoy? Being an American and all the opportunities that privilege affords me. I like having enough police and fire fighters to protect me. I like the idea of public education and want to improve it. I like having agencies to make sure the foods I eat, the medications I take, the water I drink, and the air I breathe won’t kill me. I like having a strong military and intelligence operation to keep me safe from external and internal threats. But those things cost money, and if we want to have those things and pay down the ridiculous debt our leaders, democrat and republican alike, have saddled us with, I know I’m going to have to pay more taxes – as are you. But you know what, it’s the right thing to do, just ask the guy on the $20 bill you just handed over to pay for your morning coffee and donut.