The Tax Boondoggle

When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.  Frederic Bastiat

The state is the great fiction by which everybody seeks to live at the expense of everybody else. Frederic Bastiat

The Tax Boondoggle

Government is downright evil and shameless when it comes to taxation.   These pillagers of the public just sit around all day thinking and dreaming of events and things to tax.  The State of New York even exploited 911 as an opportunity to raise taxes.   On 911, first responders suffered horrific deaths with FDNY losing 343 firefighters, NYPD losing 23 officers and the Port Authority losing 37 officers.  The reason for these deaths is that the officers and firefighters who put their lives on the line every day had junk communication equipment and could not communicate with each other or anybody else.  For all the tax dollars raked in by NY State and city entities, spending it on methods to protect the lives of those who serve was never a political priority.  Police and fire are always expendable because their lives and service don’t mean diddlysquat to the politicos.  This is very odd indeed, especially in a skyscraper lined city like NY.  Although the ruling politicos who refused to spend on life saving technology for police and fire had the unmitigated gall to attend the funerals of our fallen public servants for photo opts and the opportunity to gush forth with phony “I care” platitudes, 911 was soon exploited as a method to raise taxes.  New York wasted no time in passing a 911 tax on cell phone users for the explicit purpose of upgrading emergency response systems throughout the entire state. 

According to a Realclearpolitics.com article dated 9/26/09 titled “Taxes dedicated to misleading taxpayers”, Stephen Malanga reported that $600 million in new tax revenues were indeed collected.  How was it spent?  Very little was spent on its intended purpose.   Of the $600 million collected, a puny $84 million was actually spent on 911 services.  Most of the money was siphoned off into the State of New York general fund for the legislators to spend on pork and slop.  Malanga writes:

Quote:  In New York, so little money makes it to EMS centers from the tax that most counties now have their own 911 tax, on top of the state's tax.

http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/08/26/taxes_dedicated_to_misleading_taxpayers_97375.html

Folks, this is how taxes really work.  Taxes rarely fund what they are supposed to fund and legislators just consider tax receipts one big fat slush fund to dole out to their top campaign contributors, favorite pork projects and various special interest constituencies.   Over $2.5 trillion in social security taxes have been literally stolen from the social security trust fund by Congress and squandered on all kinds of spendthrift slop. 

Americans for Tax Reform publishes every year a date known as “Tax Freedom Day” and that’s the date Americans are allowed by law to spend money they earned after being raped and pillaged by the politicos.  Shockingly or probably not so shocking, in 2009 Americans worked until August 12 just to pay for the cost of federal, state, city, county and local government.  In some really high tax states, tax freedom day extended into September.   For those Americans who toil to produce some service or product, they get to keep 4 months and 2 weeks of what they earn after the public sector is finished looting them.   Is this what Americans call freedom? 

The U.S. kicked off its march to militarism and imperialism with the 1898 Spanish American War.  At the time, only the rich could afford telephones and Congress passed a telecommunication tax of 3% to fund the war.  In 2003, the Spanish American War tax was finally repealed after 108 years.   According to USA Today, the Treasury Dept. vigorously fought repealing the tax:

Treasury said it was conceding its battle to uphold the tax after five appeals courts declared it illegal…. Phone companies hailed the move. "This is a good first step in alleviating consumers' telephone tax burden, which currently accounts for more than 18% of the average bill," Verizon Vice President Tom Tauke said.

Source:  http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/telecom/2006-05-25-phone-tax_x.htm

WOW.  18% of everybody’s phone bill, mobile and landline, is taxes. 

Gas taxes, alcohol taxes, cigarette taxes and “sin” taxes are huge rip-offs.  In Texas, the state legislature even passed what has been dubbed the Texas “titty” tax because it assesses a $5 admission fee tax for something called “sexually oriented entertainment”.    Politicians sit in their royal palaces and dream of new things to tax because they can dole out the loot to their favorite constituent groups via “special interest” welfare programs and wait for a percentage of the “loot” to come right back to their campaign coffers.

Before our nation morphed from the Land of the Free and Prosperous to the Land of the Tax Impoverished, America had previously dabbled with various federal income taxes but they were small and they were repealed because citizens didn’t want the government to have such vast powers over their lives and money.  To be sure, lovers of big government had been salivating for a federal income tax for a long time.  Hence, the government opted for a Constitutional Amendment in 1913 to codify into the Constitution the right of the government to tax perpetually and to tax at any rate.  It was sold to the people as a tax on the rich because less than 1% of the population paid the income tax at the time:

By 1913, 36 States had ratified the 16th Amendment to the Constitution. In October, Congress passed a new income tax law with rates beginning at 1 percent and rising to 7 percent for taxpayers with income in excess of $500,000. Less than 1 percent of the population paid income tax at the time. Form 1040 was introduced as the standard tax reporting form…

Source: http://www.treas.gov/education/fact-sheets/taxes/ustax.shtml

Here’s how fast the tax grew, according to the National Taxpayers Union.

History of Federal Individual Income Bottom and Top Bracket Rates

Historical Income Tax Rates & Brackets

Calendar Year	Rate (percent)	Taxable Income Up to	Rate (percent)	Taxable Income over
1913-15	1	20,000	7	500,000
1916	2	20,000	15	2,000,000
1917	2	2,000	67	2,000,000
1918	6	4,000	77	1,000,000
1919-20	4	4,000	73	1,000,000
1921	4	4,000	73	1,000,000
1922	4	4,000	56	200,000
1923	3	4,000	56	200,000
1924	2 1.5	4,000	46	500,000
1925-28	2 1?	4,000	25	100,000
1929	2 4?	4,000	24	100,000
1930-31	2 1?	4,000	25	100,000
1932-33	4	4,000	63	1,000,000
1934-35	3 4	4,000	63	1,000,000
1936-39	3 4	4,000	79	5,000,000
1940	3 4.4	4,000	81.1	5,000,000
1941	3 10	2,000	81	5,000,000
1942-434	3 19	2,000	88	200,000
1944-45	23	2,000	5 94	200,000
1946-47	19	2,000	5 86.45	200,000
1948-49	16.6	4,000	5 82.13	400,000
1950	17.4	4,000	5 91	400,000
1951	20.4	4,000	5 91	400,000
1952-53	22.2	4,000	5 92	400,000
1954-63	20	4,000	5 91	400,000
1964	16	1,000	77	400,000
1965-67	14	1,000	70	200,000
1968	14	1,000	6 75.25	200,000
1969	14	1,000	6 77	200,000
1970	14	1,000	6 71.75	200,000
1971	14	1,000	7 70	200,000
1972-78	814	1,000	7 70	200,000
1979-80	814	2,100	7 70	212,000
1981	8 9 13.825	2,100	7 9 69.125	212,000
1982	8 12	2,100	50	106,000
1983	8 11	2,100	50	106,000
1984	8 11	2,100	50	159,000
1985	8 11	2,180	50	165,480
1986	8 11	2,270	50	171,580
1987	8 11	3,000	38.5	90,000
1988	8 15	29,750	1028	29,750
1989	8 15	30,950	1028	30,950
1990	8 15	32,450	1028	32,450
1991	8 15	34,000	31	82,150
1992	8 15	35,800	31	86,500
1993	8 15	36,900	39.6	250,000
1994	8 15	38,000	39.6	250,000
1995	8 15	39,000	39.6	256,500
1996	8 15	40,100	39.6	263,750
1997	8 15	41,200	39.6	271,050
1998	8 15	42,350	39.6	278,450
1999	8 15	43,050	39.6	283,150
2000	8 15	43,850	39.6	288,350
2001	8 15	45,200	39.1	297,350
2002	8 10	12,000	38.6	307,050
200311	8 10	14,000	35.0	311,950
2004	8 10	14,300	35.0	319,100
2005	8 10	14,600	35.0	326,450
2006	8 10	15,100	35.0	336,550
2007	8 10	15,650	35.0	349,700
2008	8 10	16,050	35.0	357,700

 

http://www.ntu.org/tax-basics/history-of-federal-individual-1.html

And that’s just the federal income tax.  The super-super rich always have legal ways to avoid taxes and do it by hiring tax attorneys to utilize perfectly legal tax avoidance strategies.  It’s how folks like Teresa Heinz Kerry paid a paltry 12% federal tax rate on $5 million in unearned income the year her hubby ran for president.  Moreover, unearned income is exempt from the SS tax and folks who are “trust fund babies” and have gobs of unearned income never have to pay FICA because FICA is a tax on lowly wage earners and certainly not the rich.  FICA is a wage earner tax that takes a whopping 15.4% off the top of all wages.  Yet, Social Security is just about bankrupted because Congress squandered the retirements of the American people.

Also, many taxes are specifically targeted at the middle class and the wage earners. 

Wisconsinbeerdrinkers.com is a grassroots group fighting outrageous increases in beer taxes and reports:

Beer excise taxes are regressive, disproportionately inflicted upon lower- and middle-income Americans. In fact, the effect on households with the lowest incomes is 11 times greater than those with the highest incomes. Nearly 63% of beer in the United States is purchased by low- and moderate-income consumers and is taxed by all levels of government at a rate of more than 41 cents for every dollar spent.

By disproportionately affecting these individuals, increasing the beer excise tax would represent a tax increase on the middle-class American workforce, further increasing the burden on those paying more than ever to fill their gas tanks and their grocery bags.

Excise taxes on beer would have a serious impact on jobs and economic development in Wisconsin, an area where brewing is an important industry. In the state, there are more than 32,000 beer-related jobs in brewing, distributing and supply, and this number does not count the many thousands of jobs employed in our taverns, grocery stores and convenience stores selling beer. Nearly 34,000 more jobs exist in Wisconsin due to the induced impact of beer and beer sales. The excise tax increase under discussion would also negatively affect the total annual economic impact of the beer industry - nearly $7.7 billion - in Wisconsin.

And while many sectors of the Wisconsin economy have experienced layoffs, the brewing industry is thriving. In fact, the state produces far more beer than is consumed here. Brewers produced 173% more beer in Wisconsin than consumers in the state purchased, meaning that for each case of beer sold, another three six-packs were exported to other states or countries.

Oregon has its citizens in a fit because it wants to increase the beer tax by 1900% (not a typo) and an anti-beer tax group reports “Beer taxes are inherently regressive – more than half of the proposed increase would be paid by Oregonians earning less than $45,000 per year”.

At the federal level, the Democrats in Congress want to punish beer drinkers by increasing the federal beer tax from 33 to 48 cents a six pack, a whopping 45% tax increase.  They also want to tax soft drinks. 

Beer taxes are a huge punishment specifically levied against the middle class and do you really think that Congress Critters like Pelosi ever pops a can of Bud?  What she sips, we couldn’t afford to sip without winning the lottery.   If we continue to raise beer taxes, it won’t be long before our breweries move to China or India.   The economic consequences of taxing breweries out of existence, especially the small and local boutique breweries that make the best beer, are devastating.  

Property taxes across the nation have increased at rates far surpassing the rate of population growth and inflation.   It’s so out of control that local taxpayer revolts are occurring with increasing frequency.  In Texas, property taxes were increased 10.4% for each year since 1999 (as of 2004) and only continue to escalate.  Such situations drive the middle class and especially fixed income folks (retirees) out of their homes because they cannot afford the property taxes.  Income never rises anywhere near the rate that taxes increase. 

The U.S. has one of the highest corporate income taxes on the planet.  The Democrats love to assess corporations with higher taxes.  Such idiocy not only dries up economic activity and contributes to the outsourcing of U.S. manufacturing jobs but all corporate taxes are passed on to consumers in higher costs for the goods Americans purchase.

Read my lips.  THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A CORPORATE TAX.

All corporate taxes are just indirect consumer taxes that are merely collected by corporations.  With Democrats lusting to tax big oil and energy, it’s always the consumer who pays the tax at the pump; it’s consumers who freeze in the winter and sweat in the summer when utility bills increase. 

Abolishing all corporate taxes should be a top priority if we are to rebuild our ravaged economy because it would accomplish two critically important objectives.  For starters, without the tax noose around its neck, corporations will be hyper motivated to start investing in U.S. manufacturing and other industries because there would be far fewer incentives to offshore.  Secondly, it would massively contribute to reigning in lobbyists and their power because a lot of lobbying is done for tax breaks because tax breaks are always for sale to the highest bidder anyway. 

How big are tax breaks that are bought and sold at the DC Wheel of Fortune?  CNN reported in a “Deficit Quiz” that tax breaks total a trillion bucks a year. 

The economic benefits to middle class Americans and American manufacturing associated with abolishing all corporate income taxes are so enormous they are practically incalculable because such a move holds the potential to usher in a new era of economic “reconstruction” and it’s going to take a reconstruction to rebuild what we’ve lost and what Congress has frittered away.

Our corporate tax structure is a job killing disgrace. But government engages in other nasty activities besides corporate taxation that massively contribute to creating an unfriendly business environment for American entrepreneurs.  Despite government and Banksters, capital always migrates to tax friendly abodes inhabited by educated and sane folks.  The Competitive Enterprise Institute puts out a study every year that it dubs “Ten Thousand Commandments” which essentially puts a dollar amount on the cost of draconian regulations that function like a continuous nuclear job killing bombardment.  Here’s a recap:

“A very rough extrapolation from an estimate of the federal regulatory enterprise

by economist Mark Crain estimates that regulatory compliance costs hit $1.172 trillion in 2008.

 Regulatory costs of $1.172 trillion absorb 8 percent of the U.S. gross domestic

product (GDP), estimated at $14.3 trillion in 2008.

 Source:  http://cei.org/cei_files/fm/active/0/Wayne%20Crews%20-%2010,000%20Commandments%202009.pdf

The above data abundantly proves beyond any shadow of a doubt that the federal regulatory state is economically destructive to job and wealth creation.

No business can start, survive or flourish under such horrific and punitive compliance costs, costs that suck the life right out of any economy.  That’s why businesses opt to exit U.S. soil and set up shop where they can function without a noose around their necks.  The noose was created by power hungry politicians who are psychotically predisposed to enjoying the spectacle of degrading honest businessmen and forcing them to lick their boots and fill their pockets.  It’s called pay to play. 

Government is not a creator of wealth, it is only a black hole that consumes wealth and when a nation no longer has the ability to create honest wealth, it is doomed to misery and impoverishment. 

Besides personal taxes, sales taxes, a myriad of special taxes, sin taxes, corporate taxes and job killing regulations that are strangling us economically, it’s also long overdue for America to abolish the 16^th amendment.  Far too many Americans live in constant fear and dread of the Gestapo IRS and its legendary abuses of power.  The sooner the 16^th amendment is consigned to the graveyard, the better it will be for all Americans.   The criminal act of taxing income must end.  Period.   Several proposals have been thrown on the table including the Fair Tax and the flat tax but moving toward taxing spending rather than income should be the objective of any tax reform initiatives.  In any event, the federal monster is consuming far too much of our national wealth and just substituting an income tax with a sales tax won’t reign in federal spending.  The will must exist to dramatically and drastically downsize DC and its voracious spending machine that sucks the lifeblood right out of our economy and the pockets of producing Americans. 

Entitlement lovers, socialists, elected representatives, statists, warmongers, corporatists, fascists, defense contractors and totalitarians of all strips vigorously oppose an end to draconian taxation because they are like parasites that have embedded themselves in the host and slowly destroys it.  For humanity to flourish amidst liberty and prosperity, the parasite must die if the host is to survive.  In response to those who abhor wealth building across the entire spectrum of the population, their defense of a benevolent “cradle to the grave” totalitarian paradise is not only hogwash but contrary to history.

It is a well documented fact that Communism killed 100,000,000 folks during the 20^th century alone, mostly by brutal murder and starvation.  So much for the worker’s paradise!   Not only was communism/socialism/statism a gargantuan failure, it was the biggest genocide machine ever to exist in human history – murderous, ruthless and barbaric, and all done in the name of the people and social justice.

The so-called soft socialism of western nations is just an illusion.   Western nations are bankrupt, their economies are disintegrating before their very eyes and the promises of lifetime pensions, welfare and healthcare are nothing more than propaganda lies that voters willingly drink.  In the end, they will have nothing and be much worse off.   Such is the fate of a person who votes for the police powers of the state to steal from another to give them what they want but never earned. 

The only difference between the genocidal hardcore Marxism of Mao, Stalin and the so-called soft and benevolent socialism of the west is that the former never had the luxury of a functioning and wealthy economy to loot and plunder.  As the west quickly approaches the state where everything has been plundered, looted and seized in the name of the state, we too will be among the totalitarian heap of a hundred million or even hundreds of millions of dead bodies tossed upon the raging pyre of the greatest lie ever told and believed.   Worshipping government as the Golden Calf and the cornucopia of plenty is about as wickedly delusional as it gets, especially when the Golden Calf is facing permanent extinction from a terminal case of mad “cash” disease otherwise known as a raging case of the incurable but fatal parasite Fedzilla.  Fedzilla devours everything in its path. 

Unlike foreign policy and spending, where the Republicans and the Democrats substantially agree on everything, taxation is about the only real area of political disagreement between our 2 rogue parties besides the contentious social issues.  The Republicans much prefer to implement their statism and bankrupting warmongering  via stealth by cutting taxes and ratcheting up the debt to unsustainable levels; this appeases the GOP neocon base who has no moral qualms whatsoever about living high off the hog now and leaving mountains of debts for their kids and grand kids.  For the gang that supposedly supports “life” such economic malfeasance is indeed crass indifference to their progeny.  On the other hand, the Democrats want to directly and indirectly tax everything in its steamrolling path to fund it hallucinatory spending binges for a humanity it doesn’t even respect or even want around except on Election Day.  As to which party is more psychotically delusional and dishonest, that all depends on who is in power. 

As the Democrats grasp for things and people to tax, they are finding that the cornucopia of plundered loot is just about empty and finding more victims to plunder is getting real difficult.  But they aren’t devoid of sinister and diabolic tricks to squeeze the last few drops from what’s left of the dish rag known as the U.S. economy. 

By the way, Obamacare has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with healthcare.  It just another another whopper of a tax and the systematic rationing of healthcare services.  The Campaign for Liberty reported that the federal government "will collect more than $570 BILLION in new taxes on everything from prescription drug and private insurance plans to medical device manufacturers...the IRS alone will hire more than 12,000 new employees to "ensure compliance"" 

In government speak, compliance translates to "collect taxes".  

Vat's the matter?  Oh yeah, Her Royal Highness, Madame (former) Speaker of the House Pelosi proposed a VAT – a Value Added Tax.  A VAT is a tax on everything that goes into producing a product from raw materials, components, labor etc.

A new value added tax (VAT) is "on the table" to help the U.S. address is fiscal liabilities, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Monday night.

Pelosi, appearing on PBS's "The Charlie Rose Show" asserted that "it's fair to look at" the VAT as part of an overhaul of the nation's tax code…

The speaker also emphasized that any reworking of the tax code would not result in an increase in taxes on middle-class Americans.

Source: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/61783-pelosi-says-new-tax-is-on-the-table

“No increased taxes on the middle class”?    Excuse me.  How can Pelosi lie through her teeth?  In Pelosi speak, Americans simply haven’t been sufficiently crushed and humbled.    Then there is Cap and Trade, the multi-trillion dollar middle class taxing scheme for the government, the Banksters and the Al Gore types who have updated Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” to “Legislate, Tax and Grow Rich”.