It's a revenue problem

North Carolina Senate Republicans put the state at financial risk.

The debate over the budget in North Carolina exposes a long-time GOP strategy to reduce the size of government. Instead of adequately funding government, Republicans starve it through tax cuts. They then claim we have a spending problem, not a revenue problem, and insist on making cuts to programs while reducing taxes on the wealthy and big corporations.

The scenario is playing out again. Budget analysts say the state is going to collect less money than expected over the next two years. With additional tax cuts scheduled to take place in coming years, the state will find itself in a precarious financial position.

Both the state House and Senate budgets would allow for tax breaks this year, but the House budget takes a more cautious approach moving forward, delaying the tax cuts until the government is more financially stable. The Senate budget keeps the additional cuts in place that could create a substantial deficit. Budget analysts warn of a “fiscal cliff.”

Senate Republicans are using an age-old GOP tactic to cut more services, most of which will probably help the poor and middle class. After they’ve cut taxes that disproportionately help the wealthy and big corporations, they’ll claim that the hole in the budget shows we can’t afford government programs. They’ll cut money for school lunches or meals-on-wheels programs or mental health, but they won’t consider replacing the revenue to solve the problem.

The Republicans’ only solution to almost any problem is to cut funding and taxes. Back when they first took control of the legislature in 2011, Republicans started saying our public schools were broken. Their solution was to cut funding, driving teachers from the classrooms and leaving students without vital services.

As the cuts weakened schools, the GOP’s solution was to add a voucher program to give assistance to financially struggling families to send their children to private schools. Republicans assured us that the program would not be used to subsidize wealthy families. They lied. Now, tax dollars flow from the poorest school districts to the wealthiest families in the state. It’s Robin Hood in reverse.

The same thing is happening with the federal budget. Republicans are cutting medical care to poor and working class families while offering tax cuts that will go overwhelmingly to the wealthiest Americans. And they’re still exploding the deficit. If they really cared about fiscal responsibility, they would fully fund the government before reducing taxes on billionaires.

Republicans’ approach to budgeting is cynical, not responsible, but they’ve gotten away with it for decades. At the state level, where the Constitution demands a balanced budget, they’ve used reducing revenues to eliminate or cut vital programs. At the federal level, they’ve driven up deficits while complaining that there’s too much waste and fraud. In the end, hard working Americans end up paying the price, either through absorbing a greater share of the tax burden or reducing vital services.