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The View From The Ground
12/28/98
Confessions of a Right Wing Extremist - Part II: Taxes
If there is one belief that unites conservatives of every stripe, and which defines the boundary marker between conservatism and liberalism, it is our approach to taxes. The standard issue conservative theory here is quite simple, and goes roughly as follows:
Extreme? It doesn't seem so. What would a perfect world look like for a tax extremist like myself? Let's start with no federal income tax, or at the most a single-very low-rate flat tax. Add in an abolition of the social security payroll tax. Toss in an ironclad principle that all possible taxes should be levied and spent locally, where the individual has more control over his money's destiny. Only those services which absolutely cannot be paid for locally should be elevated to the state level for taxation. And very, very little nationally. This obviously could not be achieved in one swoop. But it makes a real good target for debating our future.
One of the most aggravating characteristics of most discussions about policy issues is that they consist simply of arguments over details. We can argue until we are exhausted about whether or not we should have a progressive income tax system, but if we start from differing premises we will never agree on the answer. I submit that there are two possible premises which are used to justify our current tax & spend system.
The first is the fundamentally flawed Marxist notion that some people are poor only because others are prosperous. Bill Gates (or Bill Cosby, or Oprah, or whomever) has "exploited" the poor and deprived them of their due. Therefore we are morally bound to forcibly take some of that money back from the prosperous and return it to the rightful owners. One hears very few people talking in such blatant Marxist terms anymore, but this bogus, static, quasi-mercantilist premise still informs the convictions of many on the left. The reality,of course, is that Bill Gates has enriched our country and our world beyond measure. We would all, including the poor, be poorer in the absence of his success.
The second is that the liberal worldview is inherently anti-democratic and profoundly distrustful and disrespectful of the American people. Taxes as we know them today are required because liberals have convinced themselves that they, and only they, know how your money can best be spent. If we were allowed to keep it and spend it, we might not prove sufficiently "compassionate". We might spend it on cheetos and slurpies rather than to feed hungry babies. We might buy tickets for pro wrestling rather than support avant garde artists who wish to show us what awful, uptight bourgeoisie we are. We might choose to invest it in a 401(k) plan rather than throw it down the sinkhole that is social security. The essence of liberalism is the self-perception of liberals as white knights on horseback coming to rescue the powerless and dispossessed. They cannot play this game without sufficient power and revenue. Tax reform strikes at the very heart of this perception, and therefore must be virulently opposed.
Because liberals have done their usual wonderful marketing job, many conservatives are scared of being called "greedy", "selfish" or "Mean Spirited". I long for a conservative politican with the guts to stand up straight and tell it like it is:
"My fellow citizens, do you know what compassion is? Compassion is reaching deep down into your pockets, and giving of your time, energy, talents and money to help your fellow citizens in time of need. The American people have shown time and again that their reservoirs of compassion are deep. But that isn't good enough for our rulers in Washington. They don't trust you do do what ought to be done. They would rather make the decisions for you. High taxes doesn't just mean they come for your money. It means they come for your responsibility, your control, your choices, your judgement, your power. They will rip it away from you and use it to power their one-size-fits-all solution of the day. By taking power, control and dignity away from both the person who gives and the one who receives, the avatars of compassion in Washington destroy the true dynamics of compassion, replacing it with ruinous, souless "systems". Systems that turn the recipients into wards of the state, turn the taxpayer into cynical cash cows, and turn the government into arrogant dispensers of power. So join me in a call to take back our power, our dignity, our money. Return to us the fuel with which we can burn a brighter light and illuminate, for the world to see, the true compassion of the American people."
Ooooh. That just might fly.