12 • RUBY, WILDING & SWANSBURG of financial crisis. As we saw after the 2008 recession, t his approa ch can help, but it’ s n o panacea to address our bud get shortfalls . The deficit ha s continu ed t o grow since 2008, a nd it’ s unlikely this appr oach can revers e that trend now. The real question has become: H ow long can our government continue to run the money presses? • Taxes from Economic Growth — New tax revenue generates money the government can use to pay dow n the deficit. As our economy expands, new jobs ar e cr eated, new tr ansactions occur , and new services a re purchased— all potenti ally creating new tax revenue for the government. Unfortunatel y, it ’s uncl ear how soon sustained, robust economic growth will retur n. Our economy may be stymied for many years following the COVID pandemic. Which leads us to . . . • Taxes from Individuals — Here’ s an approach we’ve seen time and time again. Our government wants to spend more money. H ow does it get more money to spend? I t raises taxes on Americans. Sometimes this is through adjusting tax brackets, and sometimes this is through other changes to the U.S. tax code. Either way, the end result is more tax revenu e for t he IRS— and potentially less money for you to k eep. It’s li kely our government will attempt a combination of ablel l ioefv et h etshee s tgroavt eegr ni ems ei nn t t hwe i lyl e al er sa nt o mc ooms t e . hBeua tv, i lbyy of anr , twh ee approach of raising taxes. As outlined above, reduced
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