As I look at the ever increasing hand of government telling us what we should and should not do, and attempting to control our behavior through taxes and penalties, I realize that we are probably past the "point of no return" in our battle against this. With taxes increasing or proposed increases on items like tobacco, alcohol, gasoline, oil related products, any food that doesn't taste like cardboard, and energy in general if Cap and Tax gets voted into law, the government is attempting to dictate our behavior and force us to live how they feel is most appropriate.
I believe there would have been hope for us to overcome this trend if it hadn't been allowed to grow into the beast it is today. Looking back through history we see these excise taxes have existed for years, but began as a limited source of income for the government mostly focused on tobacco. For example, in 1929 80% of excise revenue came from the $.06 a pack tax on cigarettes when President Hoover took office. This was proven as an easy way for the government to tax a broader group of people then the income tax of the time. This lead President Hoover to pass a package of new sweeping excise taxes in 1932 which included duties on cars, movies tickets, radios, phonographs, long distance telephone calls, telegrams, cosmetics, cameras, bank checks, stock transfers, yachts, jewelry, furs, and the first ever gasoline tax of $.01 per gallon. As always these were labeled as temporary emergency excise taxes to help stem the governments loss of revenue during the depression. However when the great President Roosevelt took office, these were renewed each year throughout the 1930's until they became a permenant part of the American way of life. And so began the downhill roll of this tax snowball which has grown beyond anything even the socialist FDR could have imagined.
The question I pose to you today is, will we ever be able to stop this cycle of increasing excise taxes to fund more and more government entitlements? Or are we doomed to suffer from the insaitable appetite for money and power in Washington?
I believe there would have been hope for us to overcome this trend if it hadn't been allowed to grow into the beast it is today. Looking back through history we see these excise taxes have existed for years, but began as a limited source of income for the government mostly focused on tobacco. For example, in 1929 80% of excise revenue came from the $.06 a pack tax on cigarettes when President Hoover took office. This was proven as an easy way for the government to tax a broader group of people then the income tax of the time. This lead President Hoover to pass a package of new sweeping excise taxes in 1932 which included duties on cars, movies tickets, radios, phonographs, long distance telephone calls, telegrams, cosmetics, cameras, bank checks, stock transfers, yachts, jewelry, furs, and the first ever gasoline tax of $.01 per gallon. As always these were labeled as temporary emergency excise taxes to help stem the governments loss of revenue during the depression. However when the great President Roosevelt took office, these were renewed each year throughout the 1930's until they became a permenant part of the American way of life. And so began the downhill roll of this tax snowball which has grown beyond anything even the socialist FDR could have imagined.
The question I pose to you today is, will we ever be able to stop this cycle of increasing excise taxes to fund more and more government entitlements? Or are we doomed to suffer from the insaitable appetite for money and power in Washington?
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