Can the government make you money?

In the article “The Role of Government” by Kim Evans she talks about how the government determines how the economy works through the use of taxes and spending.  The more that the US government ends up spending the more they will need to pay it off.  Over the years the government has implemented higher tax rates to account for this spending.  More tax revenue can be generated through either more taxpayers, or more money from the current taxpayers.

If the government can cut spending, they should be able to cut taxes.  If the government taxes the people less, they will spend more, in turn, creating more money, and jobs which would lead to even more tax revenue to the government.  So, the key to making Americans the most money is by cutting taxes along with decreasing excessive government spending.  The problem is the spending part of it.  The current system of both mandatory spending (what we have to spend) and discretionary spending (what we chose to spend) needs to be reformed.  

http://money.cnn.com/2011/01/21/news/economy/spending_taxes_debt/

The majority of mandatory spending is welfare programs.  If we can reform this so that the only people receiving welfare are the people who actually need it, we can drastically cut back on our spending.  Also, unnecessary welfare programs being cut will get people to work harder for their goals, and will increase the productivity of the economy.  An example of this is Social Security.  If we pass a law to raise the age at which you receive it (due to people living longer lives), we can cut back spending on a program like that.

Discretionary spending is considered optional, but in essence we will always have to spend a significant amount on somethings.  Consider our defense programs.  We will never stop spending on defence because we have to protect the country; however, we will can still reform our spending for the military.  If the we were smarter about how we protect our country, we would be able to cut spending in our military.  This applies to all discretionary programs; if the US considers what we truly do and do not need then we can cut our spending.

            So if these changes are created, people would be working harder, spending more money, and would be making a very efficient economy for the US.  All the government needs to do is spend smarter (less), and tax less to place less of a burden on people’s spending.