A battle cry we’ve heard over the years from the far right and the Tea Party has been “Taxation is theft.” To which I reply, “If taxation is theft, what would you call using the roads, the schools, the fire, police, and other public services without paying for them? Isn’t that theft as well?” Like it or not, we do need to pay our taxes.

Our federal deficit keeps getting bigger. In the first half of the 2025 fiscal year, our budget deficit has grown to the second-highest six-month deficit on record. The highest amount was also during a Trump administration due to COVID-19. Federal spending is increasing despite DOGE. Our national deficit grew to 1.3 trillion dollars over this period. Money that will soon be added to our national debt which currently stands at 36.2 trillion dollars.

The latest figures show that the economy shrank in the first quarter, and that’s before all the tariffs took effect. Americans are not too optimistic about their economic future and are cutting back on spending already. I don’t expect that to change anytime soon.

While not as bad as the US deficit, Nebraska has its own fiscal problems. Our state budget is 190 million dollars in the hole this year and is projected to be another 190 million dollars in the hole over the next two years. Our state constitution says that we must have a balanced budget, so these issues need to be fixed.

Yet even with these financial problems, both President Trump and Governor Pillen want to cut taxes. Trump wants to cut income tax, and Pillen wants to cut our property taxes. Plus, the Unicameral is pushing a bill through that could reduce the inheritance tax, costing the state around three million dollars a year in lost revenue.

I know we can’t tax ourselves into fiscal solvency, but we can’t keep cutting taxes and get there either.

I don’t like paying taxes any more than the next guy. But I do realize that paying taxes is a necessary evil, and I’m willing to do it to help pay for roads, bridges, schools, public safety, and more.

The Berkshire Hathaway people are back in town for their annual “Woodstock for capitalists.” A few years ago, the Oracle was very vocal about the super-rich paying more in taxes. That argument fell on deaf ears.

I don’t begrudge the rich. Especially those who made it on their own and didn’t inherit it as a member of the lucky sperm club. And I don’t think we need to return to the 1970s when the upper tax bracket was paying as much as 70% in federal income taxes. Currently, the few people in the highest bracket are paying 40.8%. Instead of cutting taxes more can we find a happy medium between 40-70%? Something besides the inflationary tariffs?

I’m not the most religious guy in the world, and I don’t pretend to be a Biblical scholar by any stretch of the imagination. I’m not familiar with a lot of the Good Book’s deep cuts, but I do know most of its greatest hits.

One of my favorite Oldies but Goodies is from the book of Luke. It says, “To whom much is given, much is expected.” I’m also a fan of what the book of Timothy says. “The love of money is the root of all evil.”

When a crowd of Nebraskans shows up at a Pete Ricketts town hall and shouts “Tax the rich,” you can’t dismiss that as just a bunch of liberal Bernie Sanders acolytes. The senator is not holding these town halls in Omaha or Lincoln, but in smaller, more conservative counties.

Taxing the rich won’t solve all our fiscal problems, but our tax code needs to be fairer. It can’t just benefit people like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, and Donald Trump. Fairer doesn’t mean not paying any taxes at all.

As citizens, we have an obligation to get our government’s fiscal house in order. That means RESPONSIBLE cuts in government spending and no more tax cuts for the time being. Maybe even raising them a bit.

And we must do it now. We can’t keep kicking the can down the road. Taxation is not theft. The high deficits and debts we have created and refuse to fix will be stealing from our children and grandchildren in the future.

Tom Becka is a long time Nebraska broadcaster who for over 30 years has been covering Omaha and Midwest issues on both radio and TV. He has been a guest on numerous national cable and news shows, filled in for nationally syndicated talk radio programs and Talkers Magazine has recognized him as one of the Top 100 talk show hosts in the country 10 times. Never afraid to ruffle some feathers, his ‘Becka’s Beat’ commentaries can be found online on Youtube and other digital platforms.

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