Do You Pay Enough in Taxes?

There is always something to do on the farm. The crops for this year are in. We are busy getting ready for next year. Here we are preparing to plant 70 acres of almonds. The ground was deep ripped by the tractor in back, in the center. We are chiseling and discing the ground so we can put up berms and install the drip system. Go. Go. Go. At least for now. we are all looking forward to a break for Christmas.

Does any body out there think they are not paying enough in taxes? Are you wondering if they will ever back off?

A Modest Proposal- 2015

By Paul H. Betancourt

November, 2015

 "The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground." -Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, May 27, 1788.

Can we set the government on a budget like the rest of us are on a budget? The growth of government in recent decades is taking an increasingly greater of our national income. If this continues eventually they will be taxing us at 100%.

The general logic is they see a problem and raise taxes to spend money to solve this problem, or raise fees to solve this problem. There is no end in sight to this logic. We live in a fallen world, there will already be problems to solve. [Of course the logic question is- when did it become government’s job to solve social problems? That is not in the Constitution, but that boat sailed long ago.]

My proposal is this- that we decide what portion of our national income we will dedicate to government and then they decide which portion goes to roads, or national defense, or whatever. How about 20%? That would be a lot of money. If the national economy is $15 Trillion, the government gets $3Trillion. That includes national, state and local taxes and fees. Heck, the church only asks for 10%, giving 20% to the government seems downright generous.

            You and I have to live on budgets in our homes and in our businesses. If there is not money for something we want we either get another job or save up for it. As a farmer I don’t get to go to my customers and say, “I need a new pickup so I’m going to have to raise my prices.” How would the market respond to that? Yeah, they’d laugh and go on to the next guy.

Mr. Jefferson was on to something. The tendency is for government to increase and our freedoms to decrease. Do you remember what the Founding Fathers did about that from your civics class? They separated the powers of government. They did everything they could to restrain the power of government and give us the most freedom. We just keep giving government more power and more of our money. It is like that old story about the camel with his nose under the tent.

Since we have grown up under the current system we think this is normal. It is not. In the Declaration of Independence Jefferson said government’s authority comes from the “consent of the governed”. They can only do this if we allow it.

Jefferson also famously said of religious freedom that he did not object another person’s religion as long as it did ‘not pick my pocket nor break my leg.’ Well guess what? A lot of pockets are getting picked. Recently I was reading in the book of Genesis where Joseph saves Egypt from famine. In the final years of the famine the Egyptians sold themselves and their land to Pharaoh. They were forced to give 20% of their crop to Pharaoh and this was considered slavery! (Genesis 47:23) How many of us are paying more than 20% of our income to the government in taxes and fees and we are supposed to be living in the ‘land of the free.’

Time has proven Jefferson right. He wrote about the ‘natural progression of things in 1788. Have you seen anything to prove him wrong? If we do not accept this modest proposal they will take more and more of our pay checks until they have it all.