We Americans love to talk about how high our taxes are. Here in Minnesota, which is a high tax state, people are willing to gather and kvetch that taxes are "way too high." Never mind most of that money goes to helping make Minnesota the great place that it is to live.
I'm not crazy about taxes, but we need them. Look, as a new homeowner, I know now the joys of paying property taxes. I could complain about that and vote down a school mileage request, but that might cause more programs beng cut for kids.
There are a lot of Republicans who think the perfect society is where we pay no taxes. I'd like that, but not at the expense of putting my two 70-something parents into poverty. Because of Social Security and Medicare, they are able to live full-productive lives and I'm willing to pay my share of the tax to keep it that way. Unless most the anti-tax crowd have no parents who will one day become elderly I don't think they want to make that choice either.
Here's a op-ed going over our hatred and our need for taxes.
Posted by Dennis at April 19, 2004 01:50 PMI've never heard any Republican even come close to suggesting that we should pay no taxes. What's your backup for this?
Posted by: Brian at April 24, 2004 11:38 PMThank you for posting this. I continue to be amazed at the difficulty so many people have connecting actions and consequences when it comes to taxes.
In Columbus, Ohio, we have a really good public library, but it is suffering from lack of funding. You can see real evidence of this now--it's harder to find someone to help you, and in one local branch, you *have* to do self check-out of audio-visual materials, which came as quite a surprise to me when I was trying to check out a couple DVDs with my daughter and had no idea how to maneuver through this new procedure.
This is certainly a small issue--not of the same weighty concern as the expense of caring for elderly parents, or providing appropriate education for children of all need levels. But it's the most recent tangible example I have seen of what happens without appropriate funding.
On another topic, I thought you might be interested in this. Rev. Allen Brill has revamped The Right Christians and it is now The Village Gate. It has a number of bloggers contributing now. Click my name to see the site.
Posted by: Renee in Ohio at April 21, 2004 04:22 PM