Last month talk about the enactment of a VAT (Value Added Tax) began – it’s called “a favorite of socialist governments everywhere.” Anyone paying attention knows the accelerated speed at which the federal government is growing – and a VAT might well be in our future.
Andrea Tantaros has a good article on the Fox News website that explains the issue: “Here Comes the Biggest Sales Tax You’ve Ever Seen.”
As someone who has always felt “taxed enough already” (no matter my income bracket), talk of the VAT and the news reports of 15,000 new IRS agents being hired reminds me of the book I’m reading, “Enemy at the Gate: Habsburgs, Ottomans, and the Battle for Europe.” The author is Andrew Wheatcroft, and it’s about the Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683. (I’m only two-thirds of the way through it so please don’t tell me the ending if you already know it.)
One of the motivations for war – then and now – was the potential financial benefit, whether from taking land, resources, slaves, or any number of other things. Today, the same motivation drives much of what constitutes the growth of government. The pillaging and plunder, however, is done by one group of citizens over another.
This brings to mind the old adage about what they say about criminals – for all the time spent in jail, they could’ve earned a decent living on the outside working an average job. Similarly, for all the time spent by the taxeaters trying to get MY MONEY, these people could earn their own.
Peter Sloterdijk in the City Journal recently made a very important point:
“Today, the state’s grasping hand even reaches into the pockets of generations unborn. We have already written the title of the next chapter of our history: ‘The pillage of the future by the present.'”
On the bad news side is this from www.onenewsnow.com:
“When you’re in a situation where half the people are not paying taxes into the government, there’s very little check on the size of the government because people are getting it for free. That’s not a stable situation.”
“The other part of it is we have to explain that what that means is these people are effectively on welfare. You’re getting services from the government and you’re not paying for it.”
On the good news side is this:
Conservatives can win with those kinds of numbers.
To read more on the subject of the Value Added Tax, follow these links:
Value-Added Tax Passage During Congressional Lame-Duck Session a Possibility
