My Thoughts About Taxes
Posted: Monday, October 04, 2010
by Tex Norman
The Pay No Tax Sentiment has become a populous sentiment making itself known through the Tea Party movement. Like everything else, the ultra right is not one thing, nor do they all believe the same thing. Some Tea Partiers are working men and women, living from pay check to pay check, and while favoring the ultra rich hurts these people financially, they support the movement because their moral/religious concerns are supported by the movement. These antiabortion, anti-gay marriage religious fundamentalists are committed to their moral/religious POV that they will support any political movement that heralds their moral causes. There are others within the Tea Bag Movement that may have no strong opinion about moral/religious values, but they so hate taxes that they will carry banner for their moral members in order to get their support for their anti-tax issues. There are also Libertarian leaning members of the Tea Party movement. Libertarians just hate government intrusion into their lives PERIOD. They hate the government's power to tax, and they hate government regulations of anything and everything. In the late 1980s some people referred to Libertarians as Republicans that smoke dope. The anti-abortion, life begins at fertilization thus saith Lord tea partiers would not support the legalization of prostitution or drugs (victimless crimes in the eyes of Libertarians), but as long as that is not front and center the religious conservatives and the financial conservatives can form a coalition against progressive democrats.Back in my Libertarian days I attended a house party where the Libertarian Candidate for President of the United States was present. Someone asked him what he, as a Libertarian would do about the budget if elected President. He said, "I'd send Congress a budget on a single piece of paper with a huge Zero in the center of the page." I started to lose my faith in Libertarianism at that moment.
I started asking myself questions like these:
What if there was a guy involved in some accident that left him quadriplegic, depended on a vent to breath, and what if every member of his family had been killed in that same accident. What if he had no money, no church, and all his friends were poor. What should we the citizens of the United States do? Should we just let the guy die? Should we expect private charities or church groups to financially support this guy?
Libertarians would say yes, AND if no one was paying taxes those who are infected with compassion would have more of their own money to donate to charitable causes, but I felt sure that that would not happen. So what if there were not enough charities willing or able to care for the many totally disabled people that exist within our boarders?
Let's just push this idea to its conclusion: if there was no one willing to voluntarily support a totally dependent person what should we the people do? Do we let them die? Do we use the government to step in and support them? Instead of arguing, let us assume that the argument is over. We have come to the place where we all agree that there is a helpless being with no one willing to step in use their time and money to keep them alive. What do we the people do then?
Some of my Libertarian zealots said, "let them die." Why should I have to pay for the actions of a bad driver? Why should we keep retarded babies alive when they will never contribute anything to society?
I started to see ultra conservative anti-tax, tiny government people as cold hearted, selfish people. Liberty stopped sounding like freedom to me. When I heard these people talk about Liberty what I heard was ME, ME, ME.
I remembered my history classes where I heard Adolf Hitler exterminated, people with Down's syndrome, people with schizophrenia, and eventually people with physical handicaps, and racial heritages considered inferior. I remember seeing a photo in some magazine (Life or maybe National Geographic) where someone was walking down a road, walking past a dead body laying in the street, and the cut line said that people would not look at the dead, because if they were caught showing ANY curiosity about who was dead that the police would force these interested passers-by to pay for the burial.
I started looking up facts, like, "how many quadriplegics are there in the United States and what is the cost of their care? How many retarded children exist?
I asked myself:
- do we need a military to protect us from invasion? Will we have plans, ships, guns, bombs, computers, radar, etc. Will our soldiers need shoes? How about uniforms? What if they get sick or wounded? Will we have to have hospitals and doctors and nurses available to care for the soldiers?
- do we need a fire department, ambulance services, and a police department.
- do we need jails to confine bad people? And do we have to have guards to control
- these prisoners? Will we feed them? Will we have them go naked or will we have prison uniforms? Will we control the temperature to keep them from freezing to death in the winter?
- do I really believe that people will just voluntarily pay for these things without the need to tax them?
Next, I recalled a story I read about the Interstate Highway, perhaps the most expensive infrastructure expenditure in history. This big government funded project was the idea of a Republican, President Eisenhower. The story is that while Eisenhower was in the military he ordered troops to go from the East cost to the West coast and learned that it took them 67 days to get from the Atlantic to the Pacific. When Eisenhower was elected President he had a vision that this country would be stronger militarily, and economically, it we had wide fast highways that covered this land and linked the states as well as the east and west coast. The final estimate of the cost of the Interstate System was issued in 1991. It estimated that the total cost would be $128.9 billion, with a Federal share of $114.3 billion. This estimate covered only the mileage (42,795 miles) built under the Interstate Construction Program.
The spending on the Interstate was imposed on the states. The states were required (by a Republican) to pay part of the cost to build and maintain the Interstate.
If the interstate highway were proposed today it would be voted down. Some evidence of this can be seen in the elected leaders refusing to update and repair the Interstate Highway system. Infrastructure is a perfect example of Government solving problems for the people, NOT causing these problems. A brief look at the benefits of the Interstate Highway are as follows:
- It has returned more than $6 in economic productivity for each $1 it cost.
- It has positioned the nation for improved international competitiveness.
- It has permitted the cherished freedom of personal mobility to flourish.
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It has enhanced international security.
Under our "I Like Ike" Republican President the highest tax bracket on earned income was 92% in 1953 and 91% after that. The highest tax bracket today is 35%. Under Ike, the top tax bracket was 3 times higher than it is today. No one with any understanding of Eisenhower would call him a socialist, or a liberal, but by today's standards Eisenhower would be a liberal. Eisenhower was a pragmatic conservative. That President wanted to use government to solve problems for the American people. This is evidence that once Republicans were conservative, yet willing to do what needed to be done to help the people of this Nation.
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Top-level comments on this article: (6 total)Good article, Tex. Taxes are needed to run a country. I have not heard anything about people wanting no taxes and I have attended one Tea Party event. This particular event was geared at excessive spending and the property taxes here in TX. We do not have a state tax and our sales tax is not excessive, but with the property tax structure, one never will truly own their home. We will pay, once the house is paid off, several hundred dollars a month. With all those retiring in the next 15-20 years and on a fixed income, many will be forced to sell their homes because they can't afford the "payment". When you pay off your vehicle, it is yours, though you pay a tax (reasonable) to register it and fee (again, reasonable) to insure it. When you buy a house in TX, it is never truly yours. Balance...that is what I'd like to see...balance.
Interesting information here Tex. No one likes to pay taxes but they are a necessity. Where a lot of people get upset is where these tax monies are going and how much more they have to pay to cover it all. Our taxes no longer sustain the benefits being offered. With a crumbling infrastructure some things are going to need to go to pay for their repair or replacement. Whether it is on the backs of people through federal or state taxes it is going to be interesting to see which direction those cuts will take.
Great article, Tex. I was just in a discussion with a group of people which believe that all taxes are bad. Of course I pointed out how without taxes, we wouldn't have roads and police and fire fighters public schools and a national defense, all of which are important to commerce. The crazy thing is that the leader of this group is in the Army and gets his paycheck from the government. I can't imagine that these people do any thinking before they talk. I guess it makes great bumper-stickers, though.
Who was it that said that taxes are the price you pay to live in a civilized society?Thinking is the element missing from the debate. It is like the brainiacs who hate health reform and want the government to keep their hands off their medicaid. People are angry, and afraid and they need to blame someone. Although income tax has actually gone down for 90% of our citizens, that is not noticed because people are upset and the voices of protest are saying something different.,
The idea that any country can survive without taxation is ludicrous to me! Another well-thought, great article, Tex. I love what you write about Eisenhower.
Tex, great article. People may disagree with some thoughts, but the overall logic is right on. There are a lot of other things that the government does well, besides the Interstate Highway system: nat'l parks, the Postal Service is the best in the world, controlling the airways, training troops, Medicare, Social Security, on and on. Everybody wants these services and they cost money. Thanks for the enlightenment. Maybe someone cares. I do.
Very well written article Tex you bring out some very interesting topics, thanks for sharing.
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