Rand Paul: I can't support a bill with the largest debt increase in US history | Opinion – The Courier-Journal

When Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017, I proudly cast my vote in favor. I supported those tax cuts then, and I support making them permanent today. I also support the newly proposed tax cuts that appear in the budget bill, such as no tax on tips.
But the House-passed version of the budget bill also includes a $4 trillion increase in the debt ceiling, which should serve as a blinking warning light indicating that out-of-control spending will continue. If Congress fails to address its reckless spending, it is only a matter of time before an avalanche of calamities falls, including an inevitable future tax increase. To unleash the full dynamism of America’s free enterprise system, Congress should extend the tax cuts without a multi-trillion dollar increase in the debt limit.
The 2017 tax cuts were not some abstract, theoretical economic exercise. They let workers, families and small businesses keep more of what they earn. Congress doubled the standard deduction, lowered individual and corporate tax rates and provided key incentives for investment.
The tax cuts produced historically low unemployment, increased wages and strengthened small businesses. The economy responded exactly as free-market advocates have long argued; lower taxes support an environment in which the private sector thrives, jobs are created and innovation accelerates. Americans were better off because they, not the government, determined how to spend a greater share of the money they earned.
Yet despite all this success, those tax cuts are now under threat. Many of the provisions that helped fuel this economic momentum are set to expire at the end of the year. Letting them lapse would effectively impose a tax hike on millions of Americans.
I have consistently called for making these tax cuts permanent because I believe it’s not just an economic imperative — it’s a moral one. It’s wrong for the government to assert that it has a primary claim on income earned by a worker or entrepreneur. That money belongs to the people who earned it. Keeping taxes low respects that basic principle of economic freedom.
But we cannot ignore the looming problem of our $36 trillion (and growing) national debt. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicts that by the end of the current fiscal year, our government will spend about $2 trillion dollars more than it has. That $2 trillion deficit is financed with borrowed money. And borrowed money is a future massive tax increase that will destroy the economic prospects of American families for generations.
It gets worse. The House budget package includes a $4 trillion increase in the debt limit. Not to be outdone, the Senate proposed a $5 trillion increase in the debt ceiling. These debt limit proposals expose what no proponent of the legislation will admit; Washington has no intention of living within its means. Congress will continue to borrow, continue to spend and continue the multi-trillion-dollar deficits.
Americans will pay dearly for Congress’s inability to say no to every cause, every line item and every pinstriped lobbyist. Americans will be subject to confiscatory taxes so Uncle Sam can pay back his creditors. Americans will pay more for groceries and other necessities because inflation will have sapped the spending power of consumers. Americans will be unable to find jobs because businesses will be unable to afford new hires. In other words, today’s spending threatens tomorrow’s prosperity.
Throughout my career in the Senate, I have offered solutions to strengthen the American economy and benefit American families. I offered budgets that would balance the nation’s books in five years, proposed the elimination of duplicative or wasteful programs and called for cutting back on the endless stream of foreign aid that sends your tax dollars to countries that often work against U.S. interests.
I offered those solutions for the same reason I voted for the 2017 tax cuts; I believe in the power of free markets, free people, and limited government.  My devotion to those principles is why I cannot support a budget bill that includes the largest numerical debt limit increase in American history. A vote for continued deficits is a vote for continued borrowing, which is ultimately a vote to doom Americans to future tax increases and a weak economy.
Extending the 2017 tax cuts and removing the trillions of dollars increase in the debt ceiling from the budget package would send a powerful economic signal. It would demonstrate that the United States is serious about restoring economic prosperity by unleashing the dynamism of the free enterprise system and beginning the work toward balancing our budget.
The path toward a stronger and richer America is clear: we must cut taxes, rein in reckless spending and end Washington’s addiction to debt. Only then can we restore economic prosperity, preserve individual freedom and ensure that the American Dream remains alive for generations to come.
Rand Paul is a United States senator from Kentucky and the author of “The Case Against Socialism.”

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