We are free — after we gorge a bit on taxes

My concern in presenting these figures is that we could soon look back on these days nostalgically. Last week, the Bush administration released a report showing Medicare and Social Security on the brink of disaster. Medicare will have exhausted its insurance trust fund by 2019, and Social Security will begin paying out more than it receives in 2017.

Optimists will note that the Social Security trust fund won't run out of money until 2041, but I wonder where they think that trust-fund money comes from. The government doesn't have a big vault somewhere where it stores the money. The surplus exists only in the form of government bonds. In reality, Social Security receipts have been spent on other government needs. For example, without a raid on these funds, the famous Clinton-era government surpluses wouldn't have existed.

Keeping those programs going will require more taxes — and that doesn't even begin to take into account the cost of any health-care reform programs the next president might want to push.

Not raising taxes has its price, too. The Tax Foundation notes that if this year's budget deficit were figured in, Tax Freedom Day would come 10 days later.

The word "freedom" has many applications. Once you have finished paying your obligations, you are free to spend your money as you wish, which fuels the economy and can help you build wealth. But the more time we spend working for taxes, the less time we have to work for things like dresses.

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Jay Evensen is editor of the Deseret Morning News editorial page. E-mail: even@desnews.com