RAISING TAXES

Two things that sound really foolish coming out of the mouth of any candidate for public office:

I'm going to raise taxes.

I will cut taxes, or never raise them for any reason.

Everyone knows why the first statement is a stupid thing to say. There will be all kinds of negative campaign ads saying "John Smith wants to raise taxes!!!" That will be enough to ensure defeat at the polls. These ads never say "John Smith wants to add fifteen dollars to your annual tax bill, so that your aging widowed mother has the best quality health care and lives to see her great-grand-children grow up, even though she is eking out a living on your late father's social security."

The second statement is equally silly. The real question is "What exactly are we getting for our taxes?" But among professional campaign managers, voters are generally assumed to be too dumb, ignorant, dazed or intoxicated to think about that question. Professional campaign managers think the only way to deal with this question is bound up in 500 page volumes of highly technical budget proposals. The truth is, this question can be discussed in plain, simple direct language any voter can understand.

A president with any integrity who said "We are going to invade Iraq" would in the same breath say "It is going to cost American taxpayers $X billion, but we are willing to pay that price. We will raise taxes as much as necessary to provide our brave troops, who are risking much more than money, whatever they need to carry out a successful mission. We're not going to wage war on credit, we are going to be fiscally conservative, even in a time of national crisis, and pay as we go."

The truth nobody want to mention is, government is NOT a business, it is NOT a family, it does not EARN any income at all! As MAD Magazine said in its parody of The Godfather, everyone knows the government loses money every year. Who wants to take over a losing operation like that? The only money the government has, is what we all chip in, one way or another, whether it is income tax or sales tax or import tax or whatever tax. We pay it in the end. So we can't ask government to "live within its budget." I can live within a budget, because my paycheck is what it is, and that's all I have to spend. The company I work for does NOT belong to me. But the government does belong to us. It doesn't have ANY paycheck; until I pay some taxes, it has NO MONEY at all. First we, the people, have to DECIDE what the budget IS.

A cardinal principle in American government is "That government governs best which governs least." Somehow, everyone manages to think of some ways the government should govern more, and other ways the government should govern less. The sheer size of American government grew more under Ronald Reagan than under any previous president. Let's get real about taxes:

Anyone want to save tax money by disbanding all local police forces, the state highway patrol, closing down sheriff's departments, abolishing the FBI, the DEA, the ATF ??? Some people advocate abolishing the ATF, some the DEA, but nobody wants to live with no law enforcement at all, except those who expect "I could BE the law around here without any police to interfere." People who think like that are the reason the rest of us want some kind of police force on the street.

OK, we want police protection. How much are we willing to pay for it? Bill Clinton spent our tax money paying for thousands of additional officers doing community policing, on the street, in local cities all over America. George W. Bush saved taxpayers money by taking that funding away. Do you feel safer now?

Many cities have tried to save tax money by keeping the police department on a tight budget. That means police officers don't get paid much. That means police officers are easy targets for anyone who offers to supplement their income. "Oh, the mayor isn't paying you enough to buy your family a nice house? We'll pay you something extra on the side, and its tax free. All you have to do is..." Taxpayers, like everyone else in the world, get what we pay for.

There may be good reasons to cut government spending. Just let me know what spending you intend to cut, and how I am going to live a safe, comfortable life without it. Let me know what the impact on my world is going to be. I may even want to know whether it would be morally acceptable, to me, to cut whatever you are cutting to save me money. By all means buy toilet seats and hammers from Home Depot, or Ace, or True-Value, at the same price I pay, not hundreds of dollars extra. That would be a way to save tax dollars.

Much of the "anti-tax" propaganda is funded by people who save millions of dollars on their taxes, and can afford to buy premium medical care for themselves, but the TV spots are aimed at people who will save $40 or $100, maybe $2000 at best. A smart president or congress rep or senator would cut off this kind of appeal with a simple restructuring of the income tax. Call it "The Fair Income Tax," to steal a page from the manipulators.

The first $20,000 should be tax free. For families with children, make it $50,000. Every taxpayer, whether it is Bill Gates or Warren Buffet or a single mother flipping hamburgers at McDonald's gets this part of their income tax free. That's fair for all.

Start taxing 10% of the income ABOVE that level. So a single person with no dependents making $60,000 a year would pay 10% of $40,000. $4,000 taxes on $60,000 income. A family would not pay $4000 until they had $90,000. When income goes over $500,000, tax it at 50%. Don't listen to the crocodile tears of those who say that will discourage investment. Nobody ever walked away from a million dollars because they would only get to spend $500,000 of it.

But every year, the tax rates should be adjusted, just a little, based on what we actually NEED to spend. No more seeing what the current tax rate will bring in, then deciding what we are going to spend that money on. First, let's decide what we want our government to do for us in the first place. Then, how much is that going to cost. Then, is it really worth the money, or, looking at the price tag, would we rather do without this program? Then adjust the tax rates, according to what we are really willing to pay for. But the first $20,000, or $50,000, is tax free. Only income above that level will be taxed.

When the income tax was first introduced, only about 10% of Americans made enough money to file a return or pay an income tax at all. The tax return was one page long, for everyone. That is the kind of simplicity we need to return to.