Take my taxes -- Please (gag)

USA Today ^ | April 24, 2002 | Michael Gartner

[laurav]

Starting Saturday, the government is free.

For the rest of the year, you pay nothing for police protection. You pay nothing for the military. You pay nothing for Medicare or Medicaid. You pay nothing to keep our rivers navigable, our air paths clear, our highways patched. You pay nothing to keep our courts open, our campgrounds safe, our water clean. You pay nothing to house the poor or feed the hungry or clothe the needy. You pay nothing to finance our wars on cancer or poverty or terrorism. You pay nothing to finance government

[laurav]

This one just blew my mind... I note the author owns a baseball team. So I bet he has more money than I do. So my proposal is that if he thinks taxes are such a good buy, he should take over my share as well.

[Henchster]

"..For the rest of the year, you pay nothing .."

Except phone taxes, home energy taxes, gas taxes, tobbacco taxes, alcohol taxes, airline ticket taxes, road use taxes, National Park use taxes, property taxes, and a million other taxes that don't come out of your paycheck, but hit you AFTER tax, in other owrds, double taxing you.

What a COMPLETE moron.

[Doug Loss]

I agree with the title. Take his taxes. If it's such a good bargain, perhaps he should "invest" even more deeply by voluntarily sending most of his income to the gov't. Why isn't there a "tax me more" fund for clueless media commentators?

[VRWC_minion]

Class, listen up. You are seeing the masterful use of the logical fallacy often called FALSE CHOICE...

Just exactly what needs to be "reformed"? Should we cut our taxes so our poor can go unfed? Our sick untreated? Our young unschooled? Our soldiers unarmed?

Can anyone tell the class what false choice is and how the author is applying using it here ? Is it fair for opinion leaders to use logical fallacies to pursuade ?

[dixierat22]

By this guys own numbers, the US Government spends 7659 dollars per child on education. Can this be correct? Does that include State and local spending?

If this is just Federal money, we sure are getting ripped there.

[B. A. Conservative]

Perfect reason not to go to baseball games in Iowa, read most newspapers or watch NBC. These people believe they have the right to compel me to pay for his outrageous shopping lists that I violently object to. The day is come soon where we are going to choose living in separate countries. Since his ideas are not financially viable, his group will potentially decide to use force to restrain the rights of those who disagree. If blood runs in the streets, they will be at fault. And I intend to make sure that the stains on the streets are not from my blood.

Another Alternative

Pathway to Freedom

[anniegetyourgun]

It is "false choice" arugmentation heaped on top of the hope that we will ignore the regulation and so much more.....

The libs truly are people of the lie.

[Randjuke]

Uhh, Mr. Gartner, Tax Freedom day is just a device for illustrating the huge tax burden placed on Americans. I don't think anybody took it literally except, well, maybe you. Can you think of a better way to illustrate that we spend over 40% of our time working for the government, which is mostly entitlement programs that don't work very well, not a bunch of highway maintainence like you imply?

[jpl]

How someone so stupid could become rich is mind-boggling. I bet this guy probably thinks the government doesn't waste a penny.

[fourdeuce82d]

taxes are probably the best buy you make all year

well, if you're one of the lower 50% who pay approx. 5% of all income taxes collected, it's not a bad deal. If you're one of the top 5% who pay 50% of all income taxes, might not be so great.

(and yes, I'm one of the *lower* five percenters- my thanks to the wealthy who pay for the services I enjoy without paying for!)

[techcor]

How someone so stupid could become rich is mind-boggling

By not following their own advice. And has anyone ever seen a liberal asked "Why don't you go ahead and give 70% of your income like you say people in your income bracket should give?" I've never seen it. Has anyone else?

[Always Right]

The answer, of course, is no, it's not awful, for taxes are probably the best buy you make all year...

Mr. Gartner must be one of the worst shoppers in the history of the world if he really believes that.

[steve-b]

I note the author owns a baseball team.

Which almost certainly means he sank his fangs into your jugular to buy himself a nice new stadium.

[Tralfaze McWatt]

He's not stupid, he's corrupt. You should realise he's got his bought-and-paid-for tax shelters to protect his little empire. He made his money using an old-fashioned, leftist elitist method, by corrupting the social culture with mindless and overpriced entertainment. He obviously knows how to personally profit from the old Roman bread and circus' for the masses method.

[Still Thinking]

Someone should ask him live on national broadcast media if he hires accountants every year to make sure he pays the least ammount of tax that is legal, and if he sends in additional funds to reduce the national debt.

[Psycho_Bunny]

"A fool and his money are soon parted...what I want to know is how they got together in the first place."

[Lost Highway]

Why isn't it Tax Bargain Day?

Because a bargain is when you get an unusually valuable thing for an unusually small cost. I feel safe in saying that does not describe our federal government.

[Phantom Lord]

Why did the author not mention the tax money spent on "tattoo removal"? Why no mention of the tax money spent by HUD to teach people about "color selection" for their clothes and apartment decorating to match their "auroa", or the proper use of incense for relaxation?

Why no mention of the 1000's of outrageous and illegitimate ways the government finds to spend our hard earned money?

When ever a lefty argues against tax cuts or the need to increase revenue they always ask "you dont want us to cut spending on police, schools, social security, medicare, medicaid, etc..." They never mention the things that if they said them the people would say "ya, cut that" with resounding uninimity.

[laurav]

I know -- I hope he pays exactly the full amount of taxes he owes, no shelters, no squirreling away in tax-free accounts, no overseas funny accounting, nothing, just straight 39% of what he made last year (or whatever the top income bracket is, I'm so far away from it I have no idea).