National Review ran a article yesterday by Jonah Goldberg commenting about getting his tax return ready for April 15th. He points out a few things that might cause us to realize that we need to rethink this tax thing. Notice the distance between tax day and election day. If both happened at the same time, would we have smaller government? If we abolished withholding (which was established during World War II as a 'temporary' thing to pay for the war), would people begin to realize how much they are paying in taxes?
One suggestion mentioned in the article:
"Not only should we get rid of payroll taxes, let's get rid of tax brackets (or, in a brief nod to reality, reduce the number of them). The top half of earners already pay something like 96 percent of all income taxes. The top 5 percent pay 54 percent."
We need to also remember that 40 to 50 percent of Americans pay no income tax at all--therefore they have no stake in whether or not government spending and taxes increase. This also needs to change.
The article ends with this statement, which I think says it all:
"Yes, I want to keep more of my money -- because it's mine. But there are people who don't see it that way. The problem with those people isn't simply that they're wrong. It's that they are in charge."
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