A couple thousand dollars or a country. That’s the choice the American people face today.

An increase or a decrease in taxes affect both rich, poor, and middle class Americans. To have a tax increase or decrease there must be some justification. Taxes have been raised in the past because of the country’s debt, and there have been tax reductions because of the ability of the government to sustain itself with a lower tax intake; whether that is because programs got cut or military spending went down. For example, George H. Bush raised taxes because the debt was increasing. Also, around Ronald Reagan’s years as president he lowered taxes so much that the debt increased; Reagan then had to raise taxes to balance the debt he created. For Trump’s tax cuts, it’s debatable whether the government can sustain a tax reduction.

“In general it’s against Republican conservative principles to give tax cuts when you are spiraling out of debt on a national debt level,” said Chad Richard, a history teacher at Triton High. “They are considered to be the more fiscally responsible party, and so the idea of giving tax cuts without making up the difference of where that money is coming from is pretty irresponsible.”

When asked about tax reductions with the current debt situation, Richard responded with what he called a solution.

“The pragmatic move of the nineties was to cut some programs and increase the taxes,” said Richard. “Those increases should be levied on the top 20 percent; somewhere around there. That’s what they did in the nineties to balance the budget; you don’t have to look that far back to do it.”

Timothy Coyle, another high school history teacher at Triton, added to Richard’s comments on tax cuts with a deficit.

“We’ve got this absurd and immoral amount of debt,” said Coyle. “I don’t know how you go that deeply into debt and then cut people’s taxes. I know the argument has been made many times from the trickle-down economics folks that say if you cut taxes on the wealthy that should create more jobs and have more taxpayers. We were told that in 1980 and the deficit exploded; we were told that in the 2000s where we went from a surplus to a deficit with tax cuts.”

The U. S debt is projected to be around $21 trillion in 2019, according to Forbes website; we are spending at a deficit which means the debt will continue to rise because the government is taking in less money than it spends. Trump’s tax decrease means the government would take in less money, and that would cause the government to borrow more money. Borrowing more money causes the debt to increase. To put it into a different perspective, the amount per taxpayer today according to Forbes website is $154,161.

Aside from the views of a teacher, Eric Deprez is a senior at Triton High School who also had something to add about Trump’s tax cuts; its impact on the people and not the government’s deficit.

“I think the idea was good, but Trump executed it the wrong way,” said Deprez. “I think the tax cut should have came on the middle class because they’re the majority of the country. I think George W. Bush should not have gotten rid of PAYGO; it helps separate citizen money from government money. From that, you can use money efficiently towards the national debt.”

PAYGO is a system in the government where if there is a tax increase or decrease, then there must be some offset to stabilize the national debt. The website AARP stated PAYGO is a rule to make, “Congress offset the cost of any legislation that increases spending on entitlement programs or reduces revenues so it doesn’t expand the deficit.” As of now, there is a tax cut without an offset for the national debt. The national debt will rise until there is a solution.