True Americans like Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Paul Revere, dumped tea into the Boston Harbor rather than pay a tax of just 3 pence per pound of tea. The total tax burden in the colonies was no more than 3%.
Today's tax on gasoline is ten times greater than the tax on tea. And when all federal taxes are added up, they consume more than half of everything you earn. Unbelievable.
How Much is the Government Really Costing You?
Let's divide the money you earn into three parts:
One-third will be taken from you before you even see it, through "withholding." Another third will be taken by indirect taxes. They will be levied on businesses, but you will pay the price.
Direct Taxes
The federal income tax has taken somewhere between 18-30% of your income during the Bush-Clinton years. It's probably safe to say that government on all levels -- state, local and federal -- has taken one-third of your income in direct taxes (income, property, sales, etc.) (Social Security is a fraud. Social Security taxes go into the General Fund, and are spent by politicians like any other tax. None of the money you have "contributed" has been saved or invested." That's about 15% of what you earn.)
Indirect Taxes
Most Americans fail to consider indirect taxes. Politicians talk about those "evil corporations," and their "windfall profits," and they gain votes from the envious by promising to take money from those greedy capitalists and giving it to voters.
If you run a business, you know that you cannot "raise taxes" on your customers like the politicians can. If you need more money to run your business, you have to sell more of your products or services by getting more customers, or selling each customer more. If a politician walks into your business and demands money, there's only one way you can get it: you have to raise the prices you charge your customers.
All other businesses are doing the same thing. They're getting tax bills from the government, and to cover the bills, they're raising prices that their customers have to pay. That means you.
So even after the government takes money out of your paycheck, they're not done taking your money. They take more every time you shop.
How much?
How would you like to purchase a new $23,000 Ford Taurus for only $12,650?
That's the price you would pay if the government didn't tax every product you buy at every stage of its production, reports Americans for Tax Reform (ATR).
According to an ATR study, hidden taxes significantly boost--by as much as 26% to 75%--the price of every consumer product you buy.
That's because the federal, state, county, and local governments don't just slap a sales tax on a product when you buy it. They also tax that product during every step of its production and distribution.
The accumulated tax burden is staggering. For example, the government hits Ford with at least 20 different taxes when it builds a Taurus. That includes federal, state, and local income taxes for employees, workmen's compensation and unemployment taxes, state and local property taxes, energy taxes, and gas, tire, truck, and highway taxes to get the car to the dealer's showroom. The taxes paid by the manufacturers of the raw materials and components that Ford buys to make your car are passed onto Ford, who passes them onto you.
The bottom line: It costs only $12,650 to manufacture a car, including the dealer's profit. But you pay $23,000. The difference--a whopping $10,350--is pocketed by governments.
The Bottom Line
Governments take one-third of everything you earn through direct taxes.
Then governments take half of what's left to you (your two-thirds) through indirect taxes.
That means that the total burden of government taxes you pay is about two-thirds of everything you earn.
This tax burden causes many wives to take a second job. This destroys the family, the backbone of Civilization. Sam Adams, John Hancock, and other members of "the Sons of Liberty" tossed tea into the Boston Harbor rather than pay a tax of 3 pence per pound. We pay ten times more in gas taxes. Total taxes in the colonies in 1776 were 2 or 3%. We pay 10-20 times more today. America's Founding Fathers would be totally outraged at the burden the federal government places on families. Are you outraged?
Happy Fireworks Day - Part 1 | Part 2
Cost of government gets more taxing under Bush | Doug Bandow, 2003
Your Finances in a World of "Liberty Under God."
"Yes, but, we need to pay taxes to pay for valuable government services, like
Here's what you need to remember about government services:
- UPS and FedEx deliver your packages faster and more reliably than the government
- private schools produce more and better graduates than government schools
- private toll roads are faster and safer than government roads
- faith-based welfare agencies produce lasting improvement in the poor
- government wastes about 50% of every dollar of yours they take from you
- If we closed down these government services, the free market would provide them cheaper and more effectively, and
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you could pay one-half as much as you now pay for these services,
get better services, and experience a doubling of your disposable income |
Would You Keep Your Promise?
The government takes 2/3 of everything you earn.
The government wastes half of everything it takes.
If all government programs were abolished, and all taxes were cut, your disposable income would be 3 times larger than what it is today. You could donate 1/3 of your income to charities -- who would do a better job of helping the needy -- or buy government services on the Free Market for half the price, and that would mean your disposable income would be twice as large as it is today.
If you could check a box on your 1040 that would refund every penny you paid in taxes, provided you promised to donate one-half of the refund to charities and public benefit organizations, would you check that box?
Would you keep your promise and donate one-half of the rebate to worthwhile public benefit projects, or would you spend the money on middle-class bling? (HDTV, SUV's, RV, boat, cruise, etc.)
If other Americans were given the opportunity to check the box, would you trust them to keep their promise?
If not, then you live in a nation of slaves, not the "land of the free."
Take Action
America's Founding Fathers took up arms and risked everything they had to battle taxes which are less than one-tenth as bad as ours. Violence is wrong, but so is apathy.
Take action. Do something.
- Vote for Kevin Craig in November. He's the only candidate who promises never to raise any taxes. At all. Period.
- Send an email to someone you know in Southwest Missouri, urging your friend to support Kevin Craig for Congress.
Here are some other things you can do:
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The "Enumerated Powers Act" (EPA)
Each member, upon the start of his term of office, takes an oath, promising to protect and uphold the Constitution. Yet virtually every day that Congress is in session these same oath-takers become law-breakers -- passing laws and expending funds on items that are not Constitutionally permissible. Background page. |
Help End the Mexican Civil War
Black-market profits caused by drug prohibition fund a civil war in Mexico that's threatening to spill over our borders. Drug profits also fuel the terrorists who are killing U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. It's time to dry up the black-market profits. It's time to end drug prohibition.
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Make Congress Read Their Bills Before Voting
Make Congress read every word of every bill they create before they vote on it.
Urge your Representative and your Senators to sponsor DownsizeDC.org's “Read the Bills Act” (RTBA). |
End the FED
The Federal Reserve System constantly inflates and deflates the supply of money and credit, causing booms and busts. It's time to get off this roller-coaster. It's time to end the Fed.
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No Bailouts!
No government money, whether borrowed or taxed, should ever be used to bailout private financial interests. If you agree, please send Congress a message telling them so. |
TWIC - A Backdoor Real ID Card
Real ID is dying. But the Department of Homeland Security has a new plan to subject every American to a national ID card anyway. They plan to pick off one occupational field at a time, starting with the maritime industry. One man is fighting back. Meet him, and help stop this backdoor Real ID plan.
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Repeal the campaign finance laws
Campaign finance laws are really incumbent protection laws. They make it almost impossible for challengers to raise competitive funding, while doing almost nothing to control the true causes of government corruption. We were told that the campaign finance laws—the contribution limits and the reporting requirements—would curtail or even prevent corruption. Now, with 40 years of experience, we know that they do the exact opposite. |
End Asset Forfeiture
If the government suspects you used your house or car in a crime, they can take it and sell it at auction. They don't even have to prove your guilt. They call this practice civil asset forfeiture, but it's really theft. It violates the 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th and 14th Amendments. It also encourages law enforcement to put profits before justice. Tell Congress to end civil asset forfeiture.
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Cap-and-trade is not the way to control carbon emissions.
Even if you accept that human CO2 emissions are causing problematic global warming, a government run "cap and trade" system is not the way to deal with this problem.
• An increase in your electricity and gasoline bills
• New tools for politicians to control the economy, hand out favors, and punish enemies
• Almost no improvement in reducing overall CO-2 emissions (if the example of Europe is a reliable guide) Learn more » |
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Make Congress read every word of every bill they create before they vote on it.
Urge your Representative and your Senators to sponsor DownsizeDC.org's “Read the Bills Act” (RTBA).
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Unelected bureaucrats create tens-of-thousands of new dictates each year. Making rules is the job of Congress, not bureaucrats.
DownsizeDC.org has drafted the “Write the Laws Act” to end bureaucratic “legislation without representation.” Click here . . .
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Restore consumer controlled health care
The politicians tell us free market health care doesn't work, but we haven't had a free market in decades.
• Starting with depression era wage and price controls, and continuing with government tax policies, the politicians have made Americans dependent on their jobs to get health insurance.
• The government already pays for nearly half of all health care. This means we're half-socialized already
Learn more »
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Stop the War for Terror
U.S. policy has inflamed the Middle East. It has made terrorism more likely rather than less. We seem to be fighting a war for terror, rather than on terror. This policy must stop. The place to start stopping is with Iran. We must not attack Iran. War with Iran would devastate our economy, disrupt world oil supplies, and recruit more terrorists. Click here to stop this war before it starts.
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Preserve the Freedom to Farm
Crops grow in dirt. Animals don't take showers or use toilets. Food is made from yucky stuff.
This means there's always a risk of contamination. We can reduce this risk, but not eliminate it. Attempts to make everything perfectly safe are Utopian fantasies that carry a high price in increased costs, reduced variety, diminished supply, and . . . increased risk.
The free market already provides you with multiple ways to balance risks and costs.
Learn more » |
