"Politicians need to end love affair with tax breaks." That's the title of Richard Doak's column in the Des Moines Register this week.  Doak writes:

Politicians must have a low opinion of people.

They seem to think there is but one force that motivates all of human behavior — the desire to avoid taxes.

Actually, the desire isn't to avoid taxes, but to pay as little as possible - within reason. Most people are willing to pay a certain amount of taxes so that roads get paved, schools stay open, and the country is adequately defended. But we're far beyond that today. The problem is that we live in a culture of taxation  - and we hardly even notice it. Sit down and start adding up all the taxes you pay - like I did five years ago - and you'll see what I mean:

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.

Taxes have become burdensome and frustrating, especially so for average Americans trying to make ends meet.  We'd be much better off with more politicians focused on finding ways to ease the tax burden on the public, rather than advising them to "end the love affair" with the idea of cutting people's taxes.