Taxes and the American Backbone

Taxes are bad. Unfortunately, most Americans really don't comprehend how bad taxes are. Let me try to rectify this by examining the old colloquialism "money is power." The more money you have, the more power you have. You can buy a home, donate to a worthy charity, send your children to good schools, and even buy that Audi A4 you've been eyeing. So what does it say about a politician who wants to increase your taxes? Easy, that politician wants to take power away from you and keep it for themselves.

Now this slick politician will say it's for the good of the country, but I'm sure you've seen enough John Stossel on 20/20 to know the government is not very good at spending your money. After all, this is the same government that spent over $980,000 of your tax money to ship two cent washers to Iraq. No kidding. This is the same government that used a Bill to fund the Iraq Conflict to build a multi-million dollar peanut storage facility. Again, no kidding.

Go ahead and take a look at your paycheck and imagine what you could do if income taxes weren't taken out of your check. Have you received a pay raise recently? Chances are you barely noticed the difference in your paycheck because of the taxes. On top of that you have to pay sales tax. Oh, and don't think it's safe to jack up taxes on corporations either. A 1% increase in corporate taxes means a 0.8% increase in prices to you and me.

Nothing illustrates this point better than the story of Matt Murphy. Murphy was fortunate enough to catch Barry Bonds' record breaking home run ball. Unfortunately, Murphy cannot keep the ball because he cannot afford to pay the taxes. That's right, he can't use it as collateral to open a business, he can't use it as a down payment on a home, and he can't keep it with the hopes that it will appreciate in value.

Does that sound American? Does that sound like giving power to the people? What happened to the spirit of the Boston Tea Party? Think of this the next time you demand government services. All you're doing is giving control of your own life to someone else. You're much better off doing for yourself.