Debt and taxes

I don't have the answers for all that's going on (or not) with the Congress and the President right now. But I think I know some Biblical principles.

1) Pay your debts. And, not only should they be paid, but paid when the creditor is expecting to receive them. The Golden Rule relates to that. So does a specific command in the Bible. (Leviticus 19:13b The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning.) It is possible that failing to raise the debt ceiling will not result in economic disaster, although most economists say that it would. I don't know. But failing to raise the debt ceiling, which, unfortunately (see principle 2) is necessary in order to pay our obligations, would be a moral disaster.

2) Don't take on debts that you shouldn't. I don't have a specific verse in mind for this, but I think it's a sound principle, supported by scripture.

If we hadn't had trouble with principle 2, we wouldn't be worrying about principle 1, and, it seems to me, we need to do something about cutting down on our spending now. We should have done it before, but now is the best time we have. Let's do it. The deficit also needs to be addressed. We are spending too much. Let's do something about it, for now and for the future.

3) Don't deceive others. Speaker Boehner, and others, have said "taxes kill jobs." Perhaps that was just a sound bite, and taken out of context, but, as it stands, that's deceit, and surely the Speaker knows it. (He's not the only deceiver in politics, of course.) There are two obvious extremes on taxes. All income, of business or individuals, could be taken. Or none of it could be. In the first instance, there would be little incentive to work, or to develop business which might hire others. In that sense, the Speaker is right. But the second instance also would have terrible consequences. What legitimate business would want to establish in a location where there is no police or fire protection, no system of justice, no military protection, where infrastructure is not repaired or developed, where there are no schools or hospitals? What family would want to locate there, in the 21st Century? Taxes pay for these things, and, thus, some taxes are necessary. And, taxes do create some jobs, like, say, firemen or soldiers, or, for that matter, the job of Speaker of the House! Having these things, paid for by taxes, means that jobs may be created by the private sector, too. Too many taxes can kill jobs. So can not enough taxes.

Calling some things taxes is also deceptive. How a reasonable person can say that taking away subsidies for the production of ethanol from corn is a tax escapes me. The same thing goes for taking away special accounting treatment for hedge fund managers, or taking away tax breaks for oil companies.

Claiming that there would be no consequences for not paying our debts on time is also deceptive, because there would be moral consequences. (So, of course, would claiming worse consequences than we know to be true.)

4) Don't be selfish. Politicians should have the good of the country, not re-election, in mind. Seniors (I'm one of them) should have the good of the country, not expectation of social security income rising faster than inflation, in mind. Businesses should not be greedy. Neither should labor unions, and workers in general.

I am not particularly fussing at Speaker Boehner, just using him as an example. Apparently he has been making a good-faith effort to get us out of this current mess.

God help us all!

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On July 22, 2011, I added the next to last paragraph, and made some additional changes.