Paying high taxes and loving it

Oak Lawn (IL) Reporter ^ | 4/15/04 | Michael M. Bates

[Mike Bates]

Mark Twain famously said that everybody talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it. The same could be said for taxes in the United States.

Sometimes there’s a little tinkering around the edges. This year, for example, Tax Freedom Day fell on April 11th. Established by the Tax Foundation as a barometer measuring the overall tax burden, Tax Freedom Day is the date Americans have earned enough to pay all their taxes for all levels of government for the year.

This year’s indicator is three days earlier than it was last year and three weeks earlier than it was in 2000. Some of the blame for this year’s earlier date must be placed on those appalling Bush tax cuts, but don’t fret. Senator Kerry has promised to fix that if he’s elected.

It’s difficult at times to believe that opposition to taxes was a principal reason for American discontent with England during our colonial experience. The Stamp Act and the Townshend Act, which raised taxes on a variety of items, including a three-pence per pound tax on tea, fanned the flames of rebellion.

How times have changed. Americans grumble about taxes, but rarely do anything more than that. I think this represents a colossal conservative failure.

For years we on the Right have told anyone who’d listen that Americans are overtaxed. We’ve erroneously thought that if only our fellow citizens knew the facts, they’d do something, maybe even elect to office people who aren’t devoted to increasing taxes. We were extraordinarily mistaken.

Here in Illinois taxes on a gallon of gas are almost 50 cents and it’s even more in Crook County or the People’s Republic of Chicago. The Federal government spends about $4 million a minute. The average American family pays more in taxes than it spends for food, shelter and clothing combined. Federal taxes for the typical American household have doubled in just the last 20 years.

And what has been the general reaction to all this? Nothing.

I’ve been thinking about why that is and have a few possible reasons. One is that collecting taxes is often deceptive. Withholding them is a wonderful way of obscuring how much a person really pays. Check after check, money is taken out without employees ever seeing it except as a deduction on their pay statements.

Imagine if, instead of that, people had to write a check to IRS every April for thousands of dollars. Their tax burden would be more painfully obvious.

Then there are the hidden taxes. Corporate taxes, which are only another cost of doing business and inexorably passed on to the consumer, utility taxes, import taxes and travel taxes are examples. Yet when we pay our cable TV bill, we tend to notice only the total and not the taxes included in it.

Maybe another reason we’re so complacent is because we’re told that our taxes are low in comparison to many other countries. That’s true, and usually is because of cradle to grave benefits, especially "free" health care that’s provided in those nations. If you think that’s a peachy scheme, I recommend you check out Austin Powers’ teeth.

In harmony with the Founders’ vision, we’ve been slower to intentionally entrust responsibilities to government. The operative word here is intentionally. If we took out the Constitution, set next to it the latest Federal budget, and deleted from the budget anything not explicitly provided for by the Constitution, we could whittle the budget down from thousands of pages to a few dozen, maybe fewer.

Admittedly, it would be tough on aficionados of the Cowgirl Hall of Fame and other laudable government spending ventures, but they’d eventually get over it.

Yet another potential reason for the lack of taxpayer resistance is the sheer number of people getting checks from the government at one level or another. Government employees and retirees, Social Security beneficiaries, welfare recipients, corporations, farmers receiving subsidies, people involved with the many different projects funded by government, the list goes on. Many of these folks aren’t likely to see high taxes as a problem.

Whatever the reason, we conservatives have been unsuccessful. We’ve not persuaded enough other citizens that taxes are too high and the return on them not very good. Most Americans apparently don’t see it that way.

So, again on this April 15th, we’ll pay our taxes with a smile. And, at least in some cases, a very soft whimper.

[Mike Bates]

Difficult to believe. I could accept it for any single one alone, but not all three combined.

I've seen this fact cited quite a few times, including Cato http://www.cato.org/dailys/5-12-98.html and Americans for Tax Reform http://www.atr.org/talkingpoints/110101taxfacts.html

[looscnnn]

If only they would get off their duffs and get things rolling on the bills. The sooner they start on it, the sooner we can start to swamp our members to get them passed.

[ancient_geezer]

From what little information I have been able to gather together, the plan is to build up Congressional & grassroots support the remainder of this year and go into a full court press in the next session of Congress.

That was pretty much confirmed by DeLay in statements he made regards the NRST the end of last month.

[FeliciaCat]

"It’s difficult at times to believe that opposition to taxes was a principal reason for American discontent with England during our colonial experience. The Stamp Act and the Townshend Act, which raised taxes on a variety of items, including a three-pence per pound tax on tea, fanned the flames of rebellion."

Isnt that the TRUTH! Why did we even bother getting rid of crazy George? I would happily pay a 3 cent tax on tea now...what a deal. (I'm kidding...)

[looscnnn]

I had not heard anything and was starting to worry that they are just token bills, created to get people excited and help them get re-elected but that is all.

[ECM]

Imagine if, instead of that, people had to write a check to IRS every April for thousands of dollars. Their tax burden would be more painfully obvious.

Speaking as someone that lives the freelance life, this is much more than a thought experiment for me =(

[Mike Bates]

Don't feel lonely. I also have income that's not subject to withholding, so I'll be doing the same sometime Thursday night.

[Mike Bates]

The tax would have probably been more if it were decaf green tea.

[Taxman]

Excellent article, Mike.

Where is the RAGE?

[Erik Latranyi]

FYI - My wife and I paid over $24,000 in Federal Income Taxes alone. We still must cut a check for nearly $2500.

It's a disgrace!!!!!

[Mike Bates]

Thanks, Taxman. I wish I knew where the rage is. Maybe everyone is so wrapped up in American Idol and The Apprentice, not to mention Paris H, they just don't have time to think about more weighty matters.

[goldstategop]

Yep... on my airfare ticket - I pay $40 worth of taxes. If they didn't exist, I could fly for a lot less. Ask yourself if you had to write a check to the IRS, instead of having it withheld from your paycheck, if it would be worth the cost. People would be up in arms if they learned what their true tax burden was. We don't know how much we owe but we can't shake the feeling we are overtaxed. And liberals solution? We need to ante up still more!

[Mike Bates]

And liberals solution? We need to ante up still more!

And we know why. All together now: It's. . .for the children.

[Taxman]

Sounds like there is some RAGE in your house, Erik!

You, Mike and any other FReeper who is OUTRAGED that the US has a Marxist progressive income tax system are cordially invited to join with us to replace the income tax with a National Retail Sales Tax and abolish the IRS.

Here are your links: http://www.fairtax.org; http://www.salestax.org; and http://www.cats.org.

[Taxman]

I have been in this battle since April 17, 1991. And I cannot answer the question any better than you just did.

We have not yet reached the tipping point, but every day we get just a little bit closer.

Eagles Up!

[Hermann the Cherusker]

Well, I think of myself as probably a bit above typical in income. I pay $14,000 for housing, $8000 for food, and less than $1000 for clothing per year. If I paid $23,000 or more in taxes, I'd be broke. As it is, my total direct income/phone/property/sales/gas/social-security taxes are around $16,000 (which I still think is far too high, although President Bush gets credit for lowering that by nearly $3000 in my case). Its difficult to imagine that a typical American family, earning a few tens of thousands less than me, is going to pay more in taxes, or drastically less in the expenses listed above. I would estimate a family of four @$50,000 per year is paying $13,000 or less in taxes. Even with say a $500 per month mortgage, they are still paying $10,000 per year just for housing+utilities. And I think most people spend more on clothing than I do.

[TheMightyQuinn]

It's easy enough to run the numbers:

Without getting too specific, i can say that I pay OVER TWICE as much in taxes than I do for food, clothing, and shelter combined.

This does not account for state sales tax, car tax, or any embedded taxes.

[Not a 60s Hippy]

Please remove me from the tax bump list.
Thank you. Not a 60s Hippy

[Hermann the Cherusker]

Without getting too specific, i can say that I pay OVER TWICE as much in taxes than I do for food, clothing, and shelter combined.

Without a doubt, given current tax law, I can assure myself that either (a) your income is extremely high, or (b) your mortagage is paid off, or very minimal in payment size from being old. Most Americans do not fall into either situation. Without getting too specific, you totally fail to address the assertion concerning average Americans.

[scott7278]

I believe withholding federal and SS taxes to be the biggest scam ever perpetrated on the American public. I naturally adjusted to what was written on my paycheck when I worked as an employee of a company, and as long as I wasn't having to write a check to the government, I really didn't notice all that much.

I about fell over (literally) when I got my tax forms back from my CPA for this year. I found that I owe over $3,000 in self-employment taxes alone because I moved from being an employee of a company to being self-employed. I didn't think anything about a self-employment tax.

I notice taxes now, believe me, and it's far worse than a tax on tea. Imagine if everyone had the same shock -- there might be some change.