A Reynoldsburg, OH, resident asks Newark Advocate readers, “Our government is trillions of dollars in debt. Where will it get money for tax relief?”

We can start here: $2.9019 trillion. That is the amount of money projected to be spent by the federal government alone in 2008, according to the BEA’s report on the federal budget (PDF) submitted last year.

The government gets the money for the tax cut the same way it gets the money to pay the deficit every year, by borrowing against your future and devaluing what you take home every month.

There is good evidence that tax cuts raise revenue and thus lower the deficit. What is not debatable is that spending cuts always reduce the deficit.