Posted on 04/15/2008 7:46:57 AM PDT by shrinkermd
THE word “tax” was never pretty. But it has lately become the ugliest word in the English language, right up there with its evil twin, “death.” Even in time of war, ostensibly patriotic politicians blithely pledge to slay any tax that rears its ghastly head. Public officials dodge work they know desperately needs doing because of the possibility that it may cause an increase in taxes.
It’s time to take a page from the conservative playbook, the one where they reframe the debate by changing the language — for instance, calling the “estate tax” a “death tax,” or making equal rights for same-sex partners a “protection of marriage” issue. I propose we stop saying “taxes” and start calling them “dues.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
What is further shocking is they believe, like all good postmodernists, if they can change atttitudes by propaganda and other lies.
Mr. Conniff should do a field study of Minnesota. Our local Democrats no longer "spend" but "invest." This is the way you get more money for teachers, sports stadiums and light rail to nowhere.
“Dues” implies that I have a choice as to whether I pay them...since I have no choice, they are taxes.
My solution -
move tax day to Halloween & eliminate withholding.
Everyone writes one big check a week or two before election day.
Take a page from the Romney playbook and call them fees.
Wow, not that I needed a reminder, but it's always nice to reaffirm my decision to stop reading that asinine excuse for a newspaper.
What juvenile drivel.
Geez, this is stupidity on the same level as Morford. You can just picture the high-school education at work, naive to the real world yet thinking they know everything.
Someone tell him that one day he will HOPE he is as smart as he THINKS he is already. (unless he is incurably liberal)
Romeo and Juliet: “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
A tax by any other name still taxes my patience.
“Dues” indeed.
This is like when Pelosi got rid of “earmarks”...and by that, she meant the word “earmarks” they’re now called “spending priorities” or something like that...
He has been reading too many George Lakoff books.
The point that leftists like this guy stubbornly fail to acknowledge is that the estate tax is indeed a "death tax" - the language explains the meaning truthfully - whereas this guy's attempt at substituting the euphemism "dues" for the word "taxes", or for that matter, calling a garbage collector a "sanitation engineer", or using the phrase "social justice" as a euphemism for "Communism", and all of the other linguistic inversions and distortions that leftists embrace, are all cases where the substitution of language is used to hide or obscure the truth...
Richard Conniff, always living in the shadow of his brother, Ray.
If they’re now dues, I vote to leave the club. So my dues go to zero. And then the liberals who like paying taxes, like Bill & Hill, Barbra Streisand, and Warren Buffett, can voluntarily increase theirs to cover the difference.
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