When the employer paid portion of the tax is added, then the percentage of American households that pay more in payroll taxes than income taxes is 74%. This is robbery of an entire generation of workers--in the name of providing them security, no less--and yet hardly anyone wants to talk about it.
Government has total power to make and break businessmen. This state of affairs compels businessmen, especially large, successful businessmen, to pay regular extortion money to politicians and government officials. They have to pay bribes, in the form of "campaign contributions" and "donations," to various pressure-group organizations in order not to be harmed or altogether destroyed.
Every once in a while, the truth about government spending somehow leaks out in Washington, writes Gregory Bresiger. Reluctantly, another one of our hired help recently told the truth about how the relentless taxing, inflating and spending of our central government is leading our nation down the road to serfdom. He then recommended more serfdom.
The proposed tax wasn't about progress. In the next century, the states that relieve dangerous regulatory and tax discrepancies by reducing taxes and regulations will be the ones that maintain their current levels of capital investment and attract new stores of it. Low taxes are no longer an ideal from which to gauge relative policy prescriptions. Rather, they are an imperative.
The issue of government debt and deficits lay dormant throughout the high-revenue 1990s. But with recession and exploding government spending, the issue has become enormously important again. Sadly, just about everyone is missing the central point, which not that we need budget reform so much as drastic monetary reform.
Sumner was referring to the seemingly endless attempts to harness the power of the State to further one's own ends at the expense of other people. All human types—generals, millionaires, priests, scholars and so on—have made these attempts. The disease is not confined by race, color or creed, by age or occupation, by democracy or dictatorship. The desire to live at the expense of other men is a constant theme that runs through all of human history.
Some rich people have gained notoriety by publicly volunteering to forego a tax cut or to pay more in taxes to support spending on their favorite government programs.
Former President Clinton is a prime example. The implication is that rest of us are selfish. In fact, their statements do not make them Mother Teresa.
With more money in their pockets, the president believes Americans will be able to spend more and this will speed up economic recovery. According to President Bush, "By ensuring that Americans have more to spend, to save and to invest, this legislation is adding fuel to an economic recovery. We have taken aggressive action to strengthen the foundation of our economy so that every American who wants to work will be able to find a job."
The historical record shows that commercial freedom is the best policy in peace and war. Cooperation is more fruitful than coercion. And if one wants the friendship or assistance of others it is better to appeal to their interests instead of their fears. Above all, foreign trade should be as free and unrestricted as trade within a nation.
Every good libertarian should favor tax cuts. The money belongs to us in the first place, and it should be an occasion to celebrate when Washington wises up and gives some back. We've been promised a tax cut as long as memory serves, but it never seems to arrive. At last, here it is, thanks to Bush having pushed so hard for this as an economic stimulus measure.
