© 2009 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D.
“We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much.” – Ronald Reagan
As President Reagan pointed out 20 years ago, there is no amount of collected tax that will remove our national debt because, as more tax is collected, more is spent. If the amount collected were to triple, politicians would spend all of it. So why increase taxes?
Taxes increase for public-policy reasons. The idea is not that the government needs the money so much as it is that the leaders are using the tax code to reshape our society. They want to redistribute the wealth of the citizens rather than divide up the needs of the society and ask equally of the taxpayers. This is payback for all the greedy people who have money.
I am painting with a large brush, but consider the loathing for doctors because they make “too much money.” There is no acknowledgement for the years of school that preceded doctors making much more than average citizens. All we hear is that doctors make too much money, and they do not need all of that money, so government should take the excess from them.
It bothers politicians that some Americans have more money than others. Fancy that from politicians who are personally filthy rich but want to redistribute the wealth of others as policy.
Why do they not first take a vow of poverty themselves so we would know they are serious? Instead, our politicians get richer and richer while other Americans find the government taking a bigger and bigger bite.
Tax gouging
Taxes are a claim upon our private property by government. Economist Walter Williams coined the term “tax gouging.” In a society so conscious of the terms “greed” and “gouging,” it is odd that we never connect those terms to our government’s taxing and spending activities.
Can taxes be too high? Years ago at a tax hearing the analysts were projecting tax revenue. One legislator asked about a 5-percent raise. An analyst did the math. Another legislator asked, “What if the tax rate was 100 percent?” The analyst gave an even larger number.
“No,” said the second legislator. “If we taxed at 100 percent we would not collect anything since there would be no incentive to work.”
Williams wrote, “As taxes rise, you own less and less of what you earn. If the tax rate were ever to reach 100 percent… you would own none of what you had earned. Keep in mind that a working definition of slavery is that you work but do not have any rights to the fruit of your labor.”
So what percent of our productivity should be the absolute highest that could be taken from us? Would that number be 50 percent? If half of our time is spent working for our country, would that not be enough?
They take taxes
Sadly, some think that we should not frame the argument thusly. Rather, they think it should be that there is some maximum amount that people should have and any more should be taken from them for the good of us all. Why would someone work two jobs if they only get to keep one job’s worth of money?
When I was told recently that New Mexico had repealed capital punishment, I had a fleeting moment of hope that they were talking about not punishing those who make money, but no such luck. Chris Rock said it best: “You don’t pay taxes. They take taxes.”
Likewise, you can say they take taxes not for the money but to reshape our society. Through force of arms with our tax code they are turning our country into a socialist state, except for those in the elitist society of our nation’s capital. For them it is not socialist. It is a monarchy, and they are the monarchs.
Little wonder these days find tea parties becoming much more popular.
Swickard is a weekly columnist for this site. You can reach him at michael@swickard.com.