Money & Investing – Banks.com

Bottom line: We expect our government to do a lot for us. Even though we complain about the budget and big-spending ways, what would be the reaction if the government stopped doing any of the maintenance that they do on the roads? What if all of a sudden you didn’t get any Social Security, the government said, “Worry about your own jobs, oh, and forget unemployment benefits”, or you didn’t have access to Medicare? If you stop and think about it, we demand a lot from government right now. And while it is true that there is a lot of unnecessary spending going on in the form of pork, the bottom line is that if we expect the government to do all this for us, it’s going to have to be paid for.

As I watched the State of the Union last week, it dawned on me that we have a lot of inconsistencies in the way we view money, as a society. We whine and moan about deficits, while demanding more from our government and complaining that taxes go up.

Face it: Everyone from Main Street to Wall Street to K Street has been on a spending bender the last few years, and it’s coming home to roost. Obama is prepared to raise taxes on those making more than $200,000 a year ($250,000 for couples), and hoping that the political fallout won’t be the end. Look for increase to capital gains as well. But someone had to do it at some point, and woe be to the unfortunate guy (or gal) who has to actually raise taxes on the middle class. Because it’s going to have to come.

The idea of deficit spending has been popular with both parties since the 1980s when Reagan embraced it (after first castigating Carter, which is funny, since Reagan oversaw a larger expansion of government). At any rate, Democrats have been doing their share of deficit spending when they can as well. It’s popular to spend money on the people, and not ask them to cough up for it. And, quite honestly, we the people have been happy to allow it to happen. But someone has to pay for all the things we’ve demanded, and the taxes are coming…