Translate Your Outrage

It’s that time of year again. Tax time. I posted my thoughts last year in a post titled Taxman, (http://rotterdamny.blogspot.com/2008/02/taxman.html ), but feel compelled to revisit the topic.

In last year’s post, I rhetorically asked, “how much is enough?” Though the answer to that question varies, there is one answer that seems to embody all the others. That answer is “less.” Every single person I speak to is in agreement that the burden is overwhelming and must be reduced. In these difficult economic times, that burden becomes especially noticeable. It’s way past time to actually do something about it.

The natural next hurdle is just how to accomplish that task. It starts with a cap on spending. First and foremost, we’ve got to hold the line on any new tax proposals. Like the first President Bush once said, “No New Taxes.” He failed to honor his pledge, we can’t. We absolutely have to make that commitment. To make it happen, we have to eliminate strategies that simply call new taxes fees, or pay raises stipends. We have to ask ourselves what is essential, not necessarily to me as an individual but to the needs of the community overall. That process involves setting priorities and then subjecting those priorities to the fiscal restraint necessary to achieve them without breaking the back of every hard-working citizen. Wants and needs are not the same and we’ll need to be able to distinguish between them. There is no free lunch and we shouldn’t expect one.

Disagree? Even George Harrison didn’t contemplate the tax wrinkle Governor Patterson recently proposed. A tax to file your taxes. If that is not the epitome of tax excess than I don’t know what is. It disgusts me and it should disgust you too.

That brings me to the first part of my solution which I have proffered previously. The concept is not new. Vote the incumbents out of office in favor of those that will restore real fiscal discipline. Forget complicated tax credits targeted to certain groups. Put the money back in the pocket of the person who earned it. Enough is enough.

I’ll repeat what I’ve said before. I’d abolish the tax code as we know it, if it was up to me. It’s not. What is up to me, and what is within my control, is who I pull the lever for at election time. I’m done tolerating the lip service of those that run for office, only to disappoint me by increasing my tax burden. Those officials currently in office won’t be there as a result of my vote next time.

I can’t be alone in my outrage, can I? It’s time for all of us to translate that outrage into different outcomes. We can’t afford to let matters get any worse.