March 8,
2001
Do The Math: Americans Need Tax Relief
By Tom Bevan
The current debate on Capitol Hill over whether or not we can
"afford" a federal income tax cut obscures a much greater
truth: we live in a tax culture. Americans are under assault every
single day by an army of tiny, unseen taxes - and they hardly
even know it. Don't take my word for it, do the math yourself.
Take a look at your phone bill. Mine has nine different taxes
attached, everything from 63 cents per month for "state and
municipal infrastructure maintenance fees" to 28 cents for
a "number portability fee." I'm not sure what any of
these taxes are for, who voted for them or when they started showing
up on my bill, but I do know they accounted for seven percent
of my total phone bill this month.
Next try your gas bill. Mine, which thanks to Mr. Clinton's brilliant
energy policy over the last 8 years was $326 dollars this month,
has a $9.45 assessment under the heading of "customer charge"
and a whopping $24.33 for a "municipal utility tax."
More than 12 percent of the total bill was in taxes and fees.
You get the point. The average American is swimming in government
taxes. Property taxes, sales taxes, fuel taxes, state income taxes.
There is precious little we can do in America today without incurring
some sort of taxation.
This isn't some high-brow debate over multimillionaires and the
estate tax, the taxes I'm talking about are regressive. Everyone
who has a phone, heats their apartment or drives a car gets charged
the same amount whether they make five dollars a year or five
million.
The Federation of Tax Administrators (an organization whose stated
mission is to make the taking of money from American citizens
a more efficient process) reports that the 50 states collected
some $500 billion in tax revenue in 1999. So, in addition to the
federal income withholding, Social Security and Medicare taxes
that came straight out of your paycheck every two weeks, each
state collected an average of $1,835 per person of additional
tax revenue during the course of the year. The FTA estimates this
is roughly equivalent to 6.8% of personal income.
For a country whose very existence is a product of rebelling
against overtaxation, it's disturbing to see how fully taxes have
taken hold in America - and how completely the public has acquiesced
to them. Even now, as Americans work hard (harder than any other
nation on Earth, according to numerous surveys) and surpluses
abound at the local and federal levels, trying to get even minimal
tax relief has created a gigantic struggle.
Unfortunately, the slow, upward march of taxes in America, especially
the insidious little ones lurking just under most people's radar
screens, is bound to continue until there is a radical transformation
in the way Americans think about taxes. Only when we stop approaching
taxes as pure statistics, dollar figures and percentages and start
looking at the full picture of taxation in America as a moral
issue grounded in basic freedom will any real tax reform be possible.
Tom Bevan writes for RealClearPolitics
