Government has a role in Society

There is this pledge that almost all Republicans have taken in the House and Senate.  It was initiated by Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform.  This pledge basically says that they will refuse all tax increases or reductions in tax credits.  (Which would essentially be an increase in taxes). 

There is an inherent problem with this pledge. it based on the assumption that government spending is always bad.  The pledge makes it so that taxes can never be increased.  Therefore taxes can only be decreased.  The problem is that you cannot decrease taxes forever.  Eventually you would have no tax revenue at all.  It is fantasy to believe we could live in a world with no government spending. 

Government does have a role to play and these roles cost money.  The government is supposed to protect the people it governs.  Government is supposed to provide a protection for the people.  If our food suppliers are providing food that is unsafe the government needs to regulate them.  If our manufacturers are building factories that are unsafe for the workers, our government needs to regulate them.  If our employers are not paying enough so that people can buy food to eat and are therefore starving or cannot afford safe housing our government needs to regulate employers.  If insurance companies are making obscene profits while people are dying because they do not have access to affordable health care our government needs to provide health care.  If our builders build housing that collapses on people, our government needs to regulate building codes.  These are very real protections that the government is supposed to provide to the people it governs. 

Although only the Republicans have signed Norquist's tax pledge, the Democrats have not been fighting to make sure that the revenue is coming in so that our government can protect the people.