QUESTION: Is It Time We REJECT Lying Politicians That Keep Fattening Our Debt?
Many of us have personal debts. Those are dwarfed by the claims governments have made on our future income. Politicians mortgaged our future again last week. I say we should repudiate government debt. I say the US belongs to the citizens, not to the politicians and not the politicians’ special interests. Let the politicians pay for their failed “investments”. Politicians should not enslave future generations with their political kickback schemes. We’ve had enough.
The US legislature just passed a huge pork-laden budget in the middle of the night. We need to make clear that we will not pay for it, but that the politicians will. The recent political kickback scheme that generated this decade long spending spree is now led by Speaker Paul Ryan and Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. They paid off special interests from both sides of the aisle. The degree of inside dealing was so egregious it would make a community organizer from Chicago proud. This “budget” was disgusting for those of us who want a smaller government and more freedom. What should we do since both Republicans and Democrats sold out the voters in favor of receiving political kickbacks funded by special interests?
The only way I see to change the corrupt political system is if we stopped paying part of our taxes. Ideally, a politician would run on a platform of repudiating the debt. That politician would not get corporate or union funding. Ideally, we could use citizen lobbying groups to pressure corporations to stop paying on the debt. We could pressure portfolio managers to disinvest in government debt. Pension holders could ask that all their pensions be fully funded. Should we crowd source a charity fund for tax protesters?
Yes, I said we should refuse to pay some of our taxes. You understood me perfectly; deduct the debt payment from your taxes. I’m as serious as a politician’s bribe. There is no reason to condemn ourselves and our children to financial slavery in order to pay for politicians’ corrupt kickbacks. We should refuse to pay all government debt, federal, state and local. I see that some of you are shocked.
There is the moral argument. You shouldn’t obligate future generations to pay your expenses. Yes, you can. But, you shouldn’t. There is a name for taking money by force from people who never agreed to be indentured. There is a name for obligating children who are not yet alive. The name is slavery. You cannot obligate someone into slavery because YOU think you’re giving them a worthwhile inheritance. That is their choice, not yours. A forced obligation is slavery.
There is a political argument. Relabeling political kickback schemes as “necessary public investments” doesn’t make them so. If they are really investments, then let the lenders collect on their investment. Good luck with collecting from Obama’s “shovel ready projects” and his “green investments”. Snicker. I don’t believe politicians any more.
There is an argument for prudence. A two-hundred-year old government does not have unexpected expenditures. Instead, it has deliberately bad planning. Politicians always lie when tomorrows taxpayers have to pay for today’s political promises.
There is the argument for charity. Paying taxes is not about helping the poor. Today we pay a record amount of taxes while simultaneously having a record deficit. Politicians always want to cut services to the poor while increasing payouts to their special interests. Those kickbacks are the real political purpose of government; the public welfare is only a rationale and an expendable byproduct.
Paying taxes was never about helping the poor. It never will be. Donate your time and money to charity if you want to help the poor, but don’t expect a government agency to do it for you. That isn’t how governments work. It never has been.
What would happen if tax payers refused to pay all of their taxes? That depends on how many of us there are. More and more of us are ignoring the ever growing sea of government laws and regulations.
Politicians would condemn us to be sure. Judges appointed by politicians would condemn us. The first person to refuse would be prosecuted. Some jurors would support us. Corrupt special interest would fund think tanks to write papers condemning “selfish taxpayers”. Once one out of 12 jurors support the movement, then judges would impose trial without juries. That would rip the mask of legitimacy away and show the corrupt political process for what it really is, a political kickback scheme. The Democrat and Republican media would call us selfish and demand we be thrown in jail for threatening their cherished place of power.
Lenders who held government debt counted on taking the next generation’s income. These lenders would not be paid. It is their fault. They willfully believed the lies told by politicians. That is unbelievably foolish.
These lenders counted on the taxes paid by slaves. That is beyond foolish. That is evil.
Only the poor would thank us. Only the young would thank us… someday. That depends on who writes the history books.
Image: Courtesy of Gage Skidmore: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/
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