Tax Reform (part two)

The next morning I awoke early as I had promised myself. I quietly got dressed and tip toed down stairs to where the computer was. I cringed as I turned on the computer because of how loud it was as it loaded up. Though it never sounded this loud before I thought that it was loud enough to wake the whole countryside this morning. I just knew that I would awaken grandpa and grandma.

I smiled as I saw grandpa’s speech sitting there on the desktop. I opened it and scrolled down to where I left off. This is what grandpa had to say,

“What can be defined as taxes? Our governments are supported by taxes. That would mean that every program, every service that our governments offer are paid for by taxes. Taxes would be best known as any assets taken from the individual by the government, may that government be federal, state, or local, for the purpose of sponsoring or supporting any service provided to the people by that government.


This would include any assets collected for any service provided but is defined as something other than a tax. This definition would apply even unto those assets collected for the purpose of penalizing a person for an infraction of the law. So by this definition, every time you pay a traffic fine your personal taxes just went up for that year.

When we speak of the tax burden we must also consider one more thing. We cannot target just a single government in ascertaining what that burden is. We must take into consideration each and every one of the governments that we support to get a real picture of the tax burden borne upon our shoulders. Nor can we target a certain tax to make that determination. We must take into consideration each and every tax laded upon us. If you do that, there is no doubt in my mind that you’ll be very surprised at how much of your hard earned dollar is spent on taxes rather than the needs of your families.

While I believe that tax reform is needed in every tier of government let’s focus on the national level because this tax reform movement is a national movement. We must remember that under our first constitution that the people were not given a voice in the running of the federal government, only the States were. The people were only allowed a voice with the passage of our present constitution.

It is here where we see just how important the concept of “No taxation without representation” was to the founding fathers in the formation of a government. We can come to another conclusion from this also. We can very easily come to the conclusion that the founding fathers thought that those who pay no taxes do not deserve a voice in government. We could even come to the conclusion that those who pay the most taxes are those who deserve to have the most influential voice in government also.

So, what kind of taxes would I be an advocate for?
1. A single tax where the government recognizes that a man’s need and the needs of his family take priority over the government’s need to fund its programs and services.
2. A tax that treats all person’s as equals rather than trying to tax to make all men equal, so that each may be deserving of equal representation in government affairs.
3. A tax that is an incentive to succeed rather than an incentive to remain a failure in life.
4. A tax that cannot be hidden so that the world will know how governmental policies can make the people poorer rather than enriching the people.
5. A tax where government has no need to reach into the pocket of the taxpayer and count his money before determining just how much that taxpayer will have to pay in taxes.
6. A tax where the individual determines the affordability to pay, not the government.
7. A tax that cannot potentially make a criminal out of the ordinary citizen.
8. A tax that induces an individual to rely upon himself to provide for his own needs and the needs of his family, not on others.
9. A tax that does not require that a person seek out a professional help for the purpose of paying his taxes.
10. A tax that does not require that an individual to divulge any personal information about himself in order to comply with the tax law.

Among you out there are rich men, middle class men and poor men. Which of you fall into each of those categories I have no idea. I do know though that if there is to be real reform in taxes that reform will induce each and every one of you to look upon yourselves and your fellow man not in terms of those categories but in the terms of “We the People.”

When that occurs then we will be united as a people free. When this occurs, then the politician will not be able to divide us so that he can play one class against the other. We need to eliminate the politician’s ability to divide and conquer.”

When finished reading what grandpa had to say I just sat back in the chair, my hands across my middle and began pondering…

That was where grandma found me when she awoke, asleep in that chair.