INDEPENDENCE DAY II - It’s Cost of Government Day
Ken (NY)
Independence Day II
It’s Cost of Government Day.
By Grover Norquist, president, Americans for Tax Reform
July 6, 2001 2:25 p.m.
Today you begin to work for yourself and your family. Every single day
of this year (until two days past the fourth of July) you were working
to pay the costs of government. Wait, you say. I thought we only had
to work through May 3 — Tax Freedom Day — for the government. No. Tax
Freedom Day, as calculated each year by the Tax Foundation simply adds
the total costs of federal, state and local taxes together and
correctly points out that government consumes fully one third of the
nation's economy. We work January, February, March, and April and the
first few days of May to pay our taxes.
But taxes are just one cost of government. Government regulations —
and the costs they add to every good and service we buy — are an
additional burden. Add in a (small c)-conservative estimate of the
cost of regulations and we sadly discover that we are working 35 days
a year to cover the costs of federal regulations and 23 days each year
to pay the cost of state regulations.
Americans for Tax Reform has added the cost of regulations to the
costs of taxes for the last twenty years to calculate the total Cost
of Government Day. This year it falls at its latest point: July 6.
When Reagan left office it was June 18. Then Bush 41 raised taxes in
1990 and saddled the nation with the Americans with Disabilities Act
and a costly rewrite of the Clean Air Act. Clinton piled on with the
1993 tax hike and in the time between January one 2001and President
Bush's inauguration Clinton signed into law 1766 new regulations
including 48 "major" regulations that will cost more than $100 million
apiece.
Bush 41 and Clinton together moved Cost of Government day 18 days
forward — consuming more of the year than most Americans get in paid
holiday.
Politicians long ago figured out that they could disguise the cost of
government by levying one big tax but rather hitting us with dozens of
taxes at all levels of government. Quick, how much did you pay in
sales tax last year? Taxes can also be hidden by pretending that
businesses pay taxes rather than simply pass the cost-of-government
taxes through to consumers as they pass on the cost of gasoline or raw
materials. But over time the growing investor class — the 50 plus
percent of Americans who own stocks directly--have created a more
sophisticated electorate that sees taxes on corporations as direct
taxes on their retirement plans. The Tax Foundation's success in
highlighting Tax Freedom Day has reminded Americans that they pay
fully one third of their income in taxes — despite the state, federal,
and local government's efforts to disperse the burden and hide its
size.
Regulations are the last refuge of the scoundrel politician who hopes
to hide the cost of the growth of government.
Those new Gore-Toilets that don't flush well, the tiny cars that will
kill you in a head-on crash with a telephone pole but that please
Barbara Streisand with their high-fuel efficiency, and mandatory
labels that tell you not to put your hand under a functioning lawn
motor are not for free.
George Bush's tax cut was a sound step forward in reducing the tax
burden. But Bush has done more to move Cost of Government Day towards
January through reducing regulations — by rolling back the Kyoto
Treaty and the Clinton regulations on ergonomics. Clinton's midnight
regulations remain a target rich environment for such progress.
As we celebrate Independence Day this July Fourth, the fact that Cost
of Government Day now falls two days later should remind us that it
has been a long time since the threat to American liberty came from
Britain.
Ken (NY)
--
Chairperson,
Department of Redundancy Department
____________________________________
WHY MEN ARE NOT SECRETARIES
Husband's note on the refrigerator to his wife:
Doctor's office called.
Said Pabst beer is normal.
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