Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Our Troubling Tax System

Here is a video documenting the current mess that is our tax system, courtesy of the fine folks at the libertarian Cato Institute. Enjoy.



As an aside, those who are making light of the current explosion of tax protests are missing the point and anyone who buys the "95%" argument put forth by the Obama Administration is a (willing and) complete fool. Your federal taxes are going to skyrocket to pay for the trillions of dollars in new federal spending, both for the direct spending and for the interest on the debt incurred. It cannot be otherwise.

Then there is the matter of the federal government appropriating entire industries - boards of directors and stockholders be damned - with no constitutional authority to do so whatsoever (mortage lending, automobile manufacturing, insurance, etc.) and imposing myriad restrictions on those not directly taken over. Then there has been the rushing through of bills that contain all manner of unrelated provisions about which no one knows (in direct to Obama's campaign promises - big surprise there) as the White House tries to enact its hard left political agenda under the guise of economic stimulus. And there is no end in sight to any of this - protesting against current taxes is just the tip of the iceberg.


Besides which, for the last weight years I've been relentlessly lectured that dissent is the highest form of patriotism - I guess it just depends from what one is dissenting, huh?

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2 comments:

Ben said...

As if it is just the Obama trillions. This mess is a bi-partisan mess, not an Obama mess... not a Bush mess. With or without our current financial/economic meltdown we were destined to pay much higher taxes in the future. The entitlement programs make it so.

And Obama's policies are hardly hard left...it is just that you are used to policies that were more right than left for most of the decade, so this seems like such a huge shift...but it isn't.

james said...

You are correct in that entitlements alone were going to result in higher taxes (but, you know, when W tried to address that problem the progressive left savaged him mercilessly).

Even so, the progressive left has accelerated federal spending and extended government control to a level never before imagined in this country (except by the progressive left, that is). And I as noted, no end is in sight.

With all due respect, the contention that the executive orders, appointments, and policies of the Obama Administration do not represent a leftward lurch of the first order is to me utterly incomprehensible.