More than 128 million tax returns will be filed by April 15, and thanks to a 1981 amendment by Colorado’s late U.S. Sen. Bill Armstrong, taxpayers will be protected from President Joe Biden’s inflationary policies.

Armstrong unseated a Democratic incumbent senator in 1978, and he immediately made indexing federal income tax brackets to compensate for inflation his highest legislative priority in 1979.

Americans were ravaged throughout the 1970s by inflation rates that topped out at 14% in 1980. Inflation also drove the “Misery Index” of that decade which, at 20%, was the combination of inflation and high unemployment. “Stagflation” took hold of the economy which reflected high inflation, slow economic growth and high unemployment.

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Throughout that decade, taxpayers were being artificially driven into higher tax brackets through cost-of-living increases despite no increase in their real income due to inflation.

Newly elected Sen. Armstrong’s first attempt to index federal taxes brackets failed under a Democratic-controlled Senate and President Jimmy Carter. One cannot help but wonder if senators who opposed indexing knew exactly what they were doing in allowing the federal government to pursue inflationary policies in order to collect higher revenue while not having to actually vote for tax increases.

President Ronald Reagan unseated Carter in 1980, and the first Republican majority in the U.S. Senate was elected in nearly 30 years.

As a member of the Senate Finance Committee, Armstrong successfully amended the historic 1981 tax cut bill to include federal tax indexing. Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole called Armstrong “the father of tax indexing.”

Inflation was finally brought under control in the early 1980s due to the policies enacted by President Reagan, the Republican controlled U.S. Senate and bipartisan support in the Democratic controlled U.S. House of Representatives.

The Armstrong tax indexing amendment has now protected taxpayers from inflation for 40 years

Under Biden, inflation rose to 7% in 2022 and tax brackets have been adjusted accordingly by the Internal Revenue Service for the 2023 tax year under the Armstrong amendment.

Armstrong’s dogged pursuit of federal tax indexing was not his only consequential economic victory in the Senate.

As a member of the Senate Budget Committee, he was not afraid to oppose the first budget proposal by immensely popular President Reagan because it did not do enough to reduce long-term deficits, which forced the president to revise his budget proposal closer to Armstrong’s position.

Social Security has long been considered the “third rail” of American politics candidates and elected officials will not touch, especially while running in an election.

Armstrong not only chaired the Senate Subcommittee on Social Security in 1983 as he approached his 1984 reelection campaign, but President Reagan also appointed him to the National Commission on Social Security Reform, which was created to put the program on long-term economic footing. He opposed higher payroll taxes on employers and taxpayers and supported a gradual increase in the retirement age, which was later approved by Congress.

Despite diving into the highly charged issue of Social Security reform in 1983, he was reelected with 65% of the vote in 1984 while carrying 60 of 63 counties, including heavily Democratic Denver and Pueblo.

Such leadership is sorely needed today as both presumptive nominees for president, Joe Biden and Donald Trump, and most members of Congress for that matter, largely put their heads in the sand as Social Security is headed to insolvency. If nothing is done, recipients will receive only 77% of their benefits by 2034.

Armstrong worked with Democratic U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York and Democratic Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas in 1988 to pass welfare reform and strengthen child support enforcement. 

His ability to work with Democrats would probably not be well received today by the stolen-election conspiracists who dominate the Republican Party both nationally and here in Colorado. They see anyone who disagrees with them on any issue, Democrat and Republican, as their mortal enemies.

Armstrong never yelled at the president during the State of the Union address.  He never embarrassed himself or his constituents by being thrown out of a theater for inappropriate behavior. When candidates he supported lost their election bids, he did not undermine our political process by baselessly screaming the election was stolen.

Despite his success in pursuing and implementing fundamental conservative policies while conducting himself as a gentleman in dealing with those with whom he disagreed, he would be out of place with much of the Republican Party today.

Meanwhile, 128 million American taxpayers continue to benefit from the indexing of federal tax brackets to offset inflation.

Dick Wadhams is a former Colorado Republican state chairman who worked for U.S. Sen. Bill Armstrong for nine years before managing campaigns for U.S. Sens. Hank Brown and Wayne Allard, and Gov. Bill Owens.