President Obama insists on “balance” in coping with the nation’s out-of-control deficit. But how does raising taxes help to balance cutting spending? If government gives less money to people who don’t earn it, why should that require taking more money away from the people who do?

If the government spends too much on unnecessary programs and priorities, then those expenditures should be curbed; grabbing more money from taxpayers will only delay and perhaps even prevent the needed restructuring. Congress and the country need to determine the root cause of the soaring deficit. If it’s true that the Washington bureaucracy is too big and too costly, then our leaders must shrink the deficit by genuinely shrinking the size of government, without taking more funds out of the private sector and undermining a potential business recovery.