Taxes & Democrats

                                   Taxes & Democrats 

“I’m only going to raise taxes on the ‘rich’ and I’ll give tax cuts to the middle class.”  It is indeed the “silly season” when candidates make boasts and claims that would make a drunken sailor blush.  But the idea that a Democrat candidate for President of the United States is going to cut taxes is as believable as the idea that the moon is made out of cheese.

Democrats raise taxes.  The only exception among Democrats since 1932 - 76 years ago - was John F. Kennedy who famously said, “A rising tide lifts all boats,” and proceeded to lower income tax ratesacross the board and thereby ushered in an era of prosperity.  JFK was indeed an exception to Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton.

Republicans cut taxes.  Yes, there are Republican exceptions when clueless Presidents like Bush 41 raised taxes, who then got his just reward by being defeated for a second term.

As a practical rule of thumb, if you like lower taxes at the local level, you should vote for the Republican candidate for Mayor.  If you like lower taxes at the state level, you should vote for the Republican candidate for Governor.  And if you like lower taxes at the national level, you should vote for the Republican candidate for President.  The exceptions are few and far between.

Of course, taxes are important for many reasons, but primarily in regard to individual freedom and in regard to prosperity.

On the micro level, every one of your dollars collected in taxes reduces your individual freedom.  Instead of you choosing how and where to spend your dollar, some elected official, who considers himself or herself wiser and smarter than you are, decides how to spend your dollar.  And on the macro level, the more of your dollars that are taken by government in the form of taxes, the bigger and bigger government grows and threatens the very fabric of freedom in our society.  Large, powerful, centralized government always trends toward tyranny.  It is the sole cause of the loss of freedom whether its name is Fascism, Nazism, Communism, or Socialism.  

All human institutions, government included, are corrupted by frail, corrupt humans.  We are all sinful and everything we touch becomes corrupted as time runs on.  We are imperfect and the institutions we create are imperfect.  There is no such thing as a powerful, centralized government that is benign.  There is no such thing as individual freedom within a nation that is controlled by unrestrained politicians.  That’s the most important reason to oppose taxes - higher and higher taxes provide the foundation for the creation of bigger and bigger government.

Prosperity is similarly affected by high taxes.  You and I are more prosperous when we spend money as we choose.  Top down, command economies do not work.  No government, no matter how smart the leaders, can anticipate supply and demand.  It is the magic of a free society that creates jobs, that creates new products and services, that innovates, that develops cures for diseases, and inexorably leads to scientific and engineering progress. 

Socialist economies simply regulate scarcity.  There is no innovation except in building bigger weapons and more powerful delivery systems.  Citizens suffer at the whims of government and any consumer innovation that seeps into such a society is stolen or copied from free societies. 
The dysfunctional Trabant automobile built by the former East German government is as an apt symbol of socialism, as is the Volkswagen an apt symbol of freedom in the West.  There’s nothing progressive, or innovative, or creative, or free about a top down, command economy.  

Taxes not only mean less freedom for you and me, they also mean bigger, more controlling government, and less prosperity for all Americans.  

Liberal Democrats may be well-meaning in raising taxes and in their intent to do more for you and me, but the road of higher and higher taxes only leads to less freedom and less prosperity.  

You and I have a choice in November when we vote for politicians running for local, state, and national office.  What will your choice be—less freedom and a lower standard of living or more freedom and prosperity?