For starters, no more purchasing the Leviathan State on layaway. And that means: Get rid of withholding, a World War II measure intended as a temporary policy to pay for the war instead of putting it on a credit card. Even a system of mandatory quarterly payments for those who are self-employed is no good. Why is Uncle Sam entitled to an interest-free loan just because it makes things more convenient for him? If the feds want to borrow money from citizens, they should sell bonds.
I make this argument anytime I can – and most of my friends are tired of hearing about it by this point, even if they happen to agree – that tax withholding is a horribly cynical and manipulative intrusion into our lives that Congress defends under the rubric of convenience when in reality it’s all about dodging consequences. If we all had to pay income taxes out of our own pockets, our government would be a lot smaller and accountable, convenience be damned.
Or how about this?
Obama, famous for his belief that the government should “spread the wealth around,” said in his address to Congress that Bush’s tax cuts amounted to a massive “transfer (of) wealth to the wealthy,” as if that wealth belongs to the government and starts out in Uncle Sam’s bank account. Now the president wants the deduction for charitable giving reduced, which is what you would expect from an administration in which Joe Biden is considered to be morally infallible.
This sentiment might drive me even more batty than withholding, although they are certainly related. TAX CUTS ARE NOT A TRANSFER TO THE WEALTHY, THEY ARE A REDUCTION OF THE SIZE OF TRANSFERS AWAY FROM THE WEALTHY! It’s not the government’s money in the first place!
How can you possibly argue that it is?
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Tom Humes
[...] And here’s the rub with the individual mandate: yes indeed, paying income taxes is considered to be voluntary, but for tens of millions of people in this country, it’s voluntary only to the point where it’s also voluntary to go to work and get a paycheck. Yes, self-employed people (I’m ignoring corporations in this argument, because they aren’t applicable) have to actually write a check and have a little flexibility in deciding whether or not to write that check, but for millions of Americans, they pay their taxes every two weeks whether they want to or not. It’s called “payroll withholding” and it’s insidious. [...]