Prosperity breeds government greed

It was quite a shock for my eldest daughters to look at the first
paychecks they ever earned after going to work at a “real job” when they got
old enough during these past few years.

Before, when mom and dad paid them to “work” around the house, it was in
cash and, naturally, my wife and I didn’t take federal and state taxes,
Social Security, or Medicare out.

Needless to say, one of the first questions each of our girls asked when
viewing that first paycheck was, “Where did all my money go?” Key phrase in
that question? “My money. …”

I explained to each of them that “prosperity breeds government greed; the
better you do in life, my dears, the more Uncle Sam and his state cousins
will take from you.” They think they have some inherent “right” to
it, I said.

Nothing is certain in life but taxes, more taxes, and death, I told them.
Cynical, perhaps, but the honest truth nonetheless.

Now that the election season is heating up for real, Americans have had
an opportunity to examine both major candidates’ tax and spending plans.

Editor extraordinaire of WND, Joseph Farah, detailed both of those plans
in a column on Monday.

He concluded, basically, that neither Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore or his rival, George W. Bush, differed substantially in how they viewed who — you or Uncle Sam — rightfully “owns” the money you earn.

Can’t say he’s wrong, although clearly there are differences in philosophy between the two.

Gore, essentially, wants all of your money despite what he says, because he’s a liberal and a socialist and those kinds of politicians are what have led Americans to, these days, the highest peacetime level of federal taxes per capita than at any other time in U.S. history. Socialists who think they have the “right” to “take care of us” also believe they have the same right to force us to pay for our own care, even as they assume we needed them to be our nannies in the first place.

Bush wants to take less of your money, to be sure, by pushing for a $1.3 trillion tax refund to all Americans who pay taxes over the next decade. Again, this is a better deal, but the latest Congressional Budget Office figures say the federal budget surplus will balloon to nearly $4.3 trillion over the same period — ten years. Under Bush’s plan, you and me will get a quarter of it back — about 25 percent.

Where is the rest of it going to go? If these are surplus funds, why is there even a discussion about whom should keep it? It came from taxpayers, and it’s surplus, so — anybody? — taxpayers should get it back. Surplus means it ain’t needed, right?

That’s what my daughters wanted to know, basically, when they asked, “What happened to all my money?”

Liberals these days love to admonish hard-working Americans to pay more taxes because, after all, this country is doing better financially than it’s ever done, and because of that all of us are somehow “obligated” to “pay our fair share” — which means more — in federal taxes. I still don’t know how this leap of faith was ever mainstreamed but that’s the going line.

They also try to pin this widely successful economy on Bill Clinton and Al Gore, which is one of the most heinous lies ever spoken by liberals during the past eight years of the most criminal regime in U.S. history.

This economy of ours — and the government tax surpluses it has inherited — have come about as a result of American entrepreneurial and enterprising spirit, not because some Clinton or Gore figure “managed” the economy so well it had nothing else to do but become “profitable.”

No U.S. president in history, nor any government, for that matter, has ever “managed” to “create” the kind of wealth we now hold. Individuals, working hard, creating companies that offer better products, are what led to our current wealth and all the wealth we have created in the past. If anything, government works to stifle growth with taxes, huge burdensome wage mandates, and expensive regulations.

Nevertheless, the U.S. economy grows anyway. But, when it does, what is the first thing to happen?

That’s right — a gaggle of government stooges is standing right there at the head of the line with their hands out, because they think since we’ve done so well we somehow “owe” an honorarium to them.

We don’t. We never have “owed” these bureaucrats and greedy congressmen a damned thing.

Through funding mechanisms other than income taxes, Americans for over a century after our birth funded every constitutional function of government. It was only after the advent of a “tiny, small” income tax,

via constitutional amendment, that the U.S. budget began to grow so large that lawmakers and presidents alike began to use it to buy favor among the electorate with freebies, benefits, and “entitlements” the Constitution never gave them authority to grant.

Now, decades later, most Americans actually believe that their government has the right to use their money to buy such favor — to pointedly and purposefully demonize entire economic and social groups to the advantage of others.

You can get a tax cut only if you qualify. …

You can get education credits only if you qualify. …

You can get college tuition and family savings benefits only if you qualify. …

And so on.

But nowhere in the

Constitution lies the power and authority for Congress and presidents to “grant” these benefits and use our hard-earned money to do it.

I have told my children, when it comes to the issue of taxes, that:

1. Never vote for a tax increase without looking at the reason for it and the uses for that money.
2. Never believe what a politician stumping for a tax increase tells you.
3. Never let leaders make you feel “guilty” for not paying more taxes or for earning more money to begin with.

And, I have told them that despite the rhetoric and the class warfare, what they earn themselves rightfully belongs to them first, and others last — ideally, to be doled out as they see fit.

The more money we make the more government wants to take from us or keep from us. That’s the story about taxes in this country, and it almost makes me sad we’ve done so well for ourselves.

However, what saddens me more is that there are still too many of us who believe that we only have the right to temporarily hold onto our own money until some government thief comes along to collect it.