As Republicans and Democrats in Congress spar over whether to cut takes by some $792 billion over the next decade, perhaps they should give Minnesota a look.

Wednesday, August 04, 1999

As Republicans and Democrats in Congress spar over whether to cut takes by some $792 billion over the next decade, perhaps they should give Minnesota a look.

Here, taxpayers are about to receive checks containing surplus tax dollars.

That is not such a bad approach to giving extra money back. We’re all for it.

If Congress would consider a similar approach to handling its surplus, a couple of things might happen.

First, Congress could avoid making too big of a tax cut, one that might have to be reversed in a few years, perhaps drastically, to cover the costs of government programs such as Social Security.

Second, Congress could have time to determine whether the projected 10-year surplus will become reality at all, or if changes in the economy loom that could make it vanish.

Taxpayers could reap the benefits of a federal surplus year by year in the form of checks.

The important thing is that the government could balance meeting current and future core needs, while also returning leftover funds to taxpayers.

However, the current partisan tax cut rhetoric seems more geared toward re-election campaigns on both sides than serving the nation’s future.