You, the taxpayer.

“While the cost of action will be great, I can assure you that the cost of inaction will be far greater,” Obama said in his 52-minute televised speech.

What he failed to mention is that the cost of incorrect action is even worse.

The president made some sensible suggestions about funding cuts, such as withdrawing troops from Iraq — which makes sense from a purely financial, not political, sense — and regulating corporate executive pay. Still, a majority of the deficit will be eliminated through taxes.

On the surface, there are compelling arguments to raise income taxes. Our nation needs money to cut the $1 trillion deficit Obama inherited, and it has to come from somewhere. The much discussed $787 billion stimulus package will supposedly put enough money in our pockets for the government to reach in and take a little back, trying again to cover its $1 trillion worth of blunders. A more progressive income tax for the very highest earners, the tax Obama champions, will help bridge the widening income gap.

Taxpayers could see the positive results of raised taxes, but how individuals are affected will differ. Some positives would be that students could have fewer loans to pay following college and people would pay lower health care costs.

There is still a chance, however, that the economic stimulus package will fail to achieve its purpose. The goal is to provide money to businesses and industries in order to create jobs, which will then allow more people to earn wages
and spend more money, thereby reviving the economy.

But it is entirely logical to expect that people will save their money and only deepen the country’s economic crisis.

A major problem in analyzing the economic climate is that economists have never experienced anything like this period, MSU economics professor Charles Ballard said. Economics is a science based on assumption, so with every different view comes another possible solution.

Meanwhile, conservatives would argue that money is better kept in their wallets and better used with their discretion, rather than given to the government and distributed to programs and departments they would never use. It is a valid concern, for sure, as even the economic stimulus package has a potential to fail.

Republicans have the right to disagree with Obama’s beliefs and defend their own, but attacking Obama’s spending habits, while disregarding that a Republican president and Republican Congress compiled this nation’s trillion-dollar debt, is an atrocious distortion of reality.

Before Obama urges the nation to spend, he needs to face the facts.
The American citizen can’t afford to spend and can’t afford to give money away.

It is the government’s job first to be more financially responsible.