Saying NO to more taxes is about saying YES to more freedom.
With so much focus already on 2020, many local and municipal elections have been overshadowed. Election day for most of them is Tuesday, November 5.
Wherever there are Democrats you can bet there are ubiquitous proposals to raise taxes and call those tax increases something other than what they are–tax increases.
In Colorado, there is a concerted effort to demolish the most successful amendment in almost 30 years. It has controlled government spending and given a stronger voice to taxpayers. Affectionately known as TABOR, it is a clever hat tip to Horace Tabor, the famous Colorado Silver Baron and Republican politician of the 1800’s. It is also an acronym for the ‘Taxpayer Bill of Rights.’
TABOR limits the amount of revenue the State of Colorado can retain and spend and requires lawmakers to ask permission of the voters first before they are allowed to raise taxes. Many states have emulated it and predictably, it has been the bane of Democrats’ existence since it was approved by voters in 1992.
The same methods used by Democrats to pass tax increases have been duplicated and franchised around the country. First, they plead poverty, and then they claim they don’t have enough money for the services that are their duty to fund. What they don’t tell you is that they’ve been spending their time and money on programs and projects that are not their duty to fund.
The universality of these tactics are not unlike the one-size-fits-all, near identical bills that are being forced through state legislatures to change national policy and do an end run around Congress. This also eradicates local control and steamrollers over the needs and wishes of local constituents.
Among my pet peeves is the way Republicans argue against these tax increases. Their most common lament is, “We can’t afford it!” which suggests that we’d like whatever they’re promising if only we could afford it.
Money isn’t just the “mother’s milk of politics.” It is the mother’s milk of big, bigger and biggest government.
If you want to constrain the size of government, you have to limit the size of its wallet.
My preferred motto for why we should refuse tax increases regardless of what they’re calling it this election cycle is, “Even if it were free, it wouldn’t be worth it.”
Let’s use affirmative responses to say No to tax increases and YES to more freedom in 2019.
photo credit: thedailyenglishshow Penis Or Cloud? Giant Sculpture Erected In New Zealand via photopin (license)
