[lit-ideas] Re: It's Your Money, Don't Let Them Take It Without A Fight
- From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 18:59:16 -0400
M.A., this is the second time that you've posted that taxes are too high. What
is your position on taxes? Do you think Clinton is wrong in condemning the tax
cuts to the wealthiest 1%, of which he is a member? Do you think we need
another tax cut? BTW, this article sounds like more hogwash. He says things
like "the good news is a growing number of people pay no taxes at all". That's
good news? Do you believe this stuff?
----- Original Message -----
From: M.A. Camp
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: 10/12/2005 4:59:35 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] It's Your Money, Don't Let Them Take It Without A Fight
It's Your Money, Don't Let Them Take It Without A Fight
Chicago Sun Times ^ | 10-10-05 | Joseph Bast
Governments in the United States take approximately 40 percent of the country's
total income in taxes. In other words, nearly half of all the income generated
each year is sent to governments to spend.
The good news is that a growing number of people pay no federal taxes at all.
According to a recent Tax Foundation report, 29 million people had no federal
income tax liability in 2000, and the number was expected to reach 44 million
in 2004. The bad news is that people who do pay taxes much pay more to make up
for those who pay nothing.
Writes Daniel Mitchell at the Heritage Foundation, "According to data from the
Internal Revenue Service, the top 1 percent of income earners pay nearly 35
percent of the income tax burden; the top 10 percent pay 65 percent; and the
top 25 percent pay nearly 83 percent. The bottom 50 percent of income earners,
on the other hand, pay barely 4 percent of income taxes."
Federal income taxes are only a small portion of the taxes we pay. We also pay
federal payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare, state income taxes,
state and local sales taxes, property taxes, death taxes and excise taxes.
Except for excise taxes, these taxes fall most heavily on the most productive
members of society. This doesn't make excise taxes better: They fall randomly
and unfairly on people based on their habits and needs without regard to their
ability to pay or their use of public services.
The growth of government spending is what makes this tax burden necessary. The
federal budget grew 14 percent in President Bush's first three years, with
discretionary spending growing nearly 50 percent. The 2006 Bush budget would
increase the Department of Education budget by 40 percent since 2001 and the
Department of Commerce budget by 85 percent. Bush's 2006 budget was supposed to
be an "austerity" budget that finally would rein in spending, but it started
with a proposed 3.6 percent increase in federal spending and has taken wing
from there. The energy and transportation bills signed by the president are
budget busters, and the just-announced spending to "rebuild New Orleans" is
likely to make 2006 another record-breaker.
If government is too big, as Republicans love to chant, why is it growing
larger and at a record pace with a Republican president and Republicans in
control of both houses of Congress? Why did it grow at a slower rate when Bill
Clinton was in the White House?
Meanwhile, state governments have been indulging in their own spending orgy.
Between 1990 and 2000, total state spending grew by a staggering $512 billion,
or 89 percent. All of that new built-in spending is moving through today's
budgets like a pig through a python, causing state politicians to cry about
"budget cuts" even as they reap record revenue increases due to the reviving
national economy.
Voters need to hold to the fire the feet of elected officials, and especially
Republicans who pretend to be pro-taxpayer. Officials who cut taxes and balance
budgets need to be rewarded with success at the ballot box, and those who raise
taxes and increase spending should be targeted by taxpayer groups and lose
elections.
Tax and expenditure limits, such as Colorado's Taxpayers' Bill of Rights, are a
structural solution to the problem of too much spending during good economic
times and tax hikes during bad times. (It limits government spending to growth
in population and inflation and returns surpluses to taxpayers.) Efforts are
under way across the country to adopt TABOR through referendums and initiative
where they are allowed, or legislatively if not. Those efforts deserve
everyone's support.
Voters need to be far more aggressive in opposing excise taxes and so-called
sin taxes. These taxes often pass by dividing the public -- pitting smokers
against nonsmokers, beer drinkers against nondrinkers, tourists against
residents, and so on. They are easily hidden from taxpayers, a good example
being the Spanish-American War tax on telephone service.
Privatization and outsourcing of government services are widespread, have been
closely studied, and typically increase the quality of services provided while
reducing spending. They need to be promoted and aggressively defended against
attacks by public-sector labor unions and their allies on the left.
It's easy to complain about taxes and then do nothing to lower them, but how
free are you when governments take half or more of your income? Even serfs in
the 16th and 17th centuries typically owed their feudal lords only a quarter of
their crops and livestock, and often much less.
Our forefathers fought a war for independence over taxes that were far lower
than those we now pay without complaint. It's time we got up off our sofas and
demanded real tax relief.
--
Cheers,
M.A. Camp, Esq.
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