Congress can approve a massive tax cut, or the nation can invest in a number of important priorities, but we can't do both. This is a choice that makes sense to many Americans. The tax cut is an education issue, a health care issue, a children's issue, and a seniors' issue. An oversized tax cut could jeopardize important services in all these areas. There is a real danger that the entire budget surplus could be consumed by the proposed tax cut, making it impossible to make significant investments in education, Medicare, or the looming needs of the millions of Americans approaching retirement age.
History offers cautionary lessons to elected leaders considering which path to take.
Consider the tax cut Ronald Reagan successfully moved through Congress 20 years ago. Rather than strengthening the economic well-being of individuals and the nation, tax cuts plunged the nation into a spiral of debt. Interest rates soared, severely hampering the purchasing abilities of many Americans. And the deficit skyrocketed, a costly trend that was not reversed until the 1990s, when paying down the debt and restoring the budget surplus became a priority. Reagan's economic legacy of piling up debt is a mistake that should not be repeated.