![]() Such an approach would also help serious tax-cutters confront their opponents’ shameless attempts at class war. Thus, they advocate denying any benefits to high earners.Īlas, no one in the nation’s capital is making the basic moral case government is taking far too much of everyone’s income and Congress should just cut overall tax rates. Moreover, even some tax-cutters fear being perceived as, horrors!, favoring the rich. Rather than simply returning money to people, letting them decide how to use it, they promote supply-side engineering: proposals for specific credits and the like. Of course, many of them are convenient converts to budget responsibility, having never before found a federal program they didn’t like.Įven many of the defenders of tax reduction seem half-hearted. The more subtle–seen as “responsible” politicians by the opinion-making elite–say that deficit reduction must take first priority. A few legislators freely admit that they want to keep on spending, so they prefer tax hikes to cuts. People have a moral right to more of their incomes.īut you wouldn’t know it from the debate in Washington. This is unconscionable–feudal serfs were treated better than taxpayers today. Did you feel liberated after April 15? You shouldn’t have-you had nearly three more months to go before the money you earned was truly your own. In short, the average American spends more than half of every year working for government. And Cost of Government Day, when citizens were finally free of the total expense of government, including regulation, is still to come, on July 9. Thus, the Washington-based Americans for Tax Reform estimates that while Americans may have finished with their taxes on May 6, Spending Freedom Day didn’t occur until May 16, when people stopped paying for government outlays. The federal government, however, relies on deficits to expand its outlays and regulations to control even more private activities. The Tax Foundation only looks at tax collections. ![]() Far more people labor four to five months for politicians before earning a penny for themselves.Įven these horrible numbers understate the impact of government on taxpayers. The least taxed citizens of America work three and one-half months for the government. Residents of Hawaii are indentured servants until May 17. Residents of Washington, D.C., and New Jersey start working for themselves only on May 18. If you live in Connecticut or New York, you labor for government till May 28. ![]() This is the latest Tax Freedom Day ever, as a result of the 1993 tax hikes. Looked at another way, people devote two hours and 46 minutes of every workday to government. We are still working for government, and we won’t be finished until the middle of this month.Īccording to the Tax Foundation, the average American had to labor 126 days-to May 6-to pay his or her taxes this year. WASHINGTON-Income tax day may be behind us, but the pain is not over. Bandow is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute and the author of The Politics of Envy: Statism as Theology (Transaction). ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |