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April 15, 2009

Begala: April 15th should be 'Patriot's Day'

Rick Moran
What is it about paying taxes that make liberals coo and gurgle like a newborn making satisfied noises after soiling its diaper?

Last year, it was Matt Stoller who wrote:

I just paid my taxes, and I have to say, I always take pride when I do so. I don’t like having less money to spend, of course, and the complexity of the process is really upsetting. But I am proud to pay for democracy, and I feel when I do send money to the DC Treasurer and the US Treasury that that is what I am doing. The right-wing likes to pretend as if taxes are a burden instead of the price of democracy. And I suppose, if you hate democracy, as the right-wing does, then taxes are the price for paying for something you really don’t want. Personally, I find banking fees, high cable and internet charges, health care costs, and credit card hidden charges much more abrasive than taxes, because with those I’m just being ripped off to pay for someone’s summer home.


With that kind of carrying on for paying taxes, you can imagine the party Stoller throws when he makes a complete stop at a stop sign.

Not to be outdone this year, former Bill Clinton aide Paul Begala absolutely gushes about about tax day, calling it "Patriot's Day" and slobbering over the fact that government gets to reach into his pocket and take his property:

Happy Patriots' Day. April 15 is the one day a year when our country asks something of us -- or at least the vast majority of us.

For those who wear a military uniform, those who serve the rest of us as policemen and firefighters and teachers and other public servants, every day is patriots' day. They work hard for our country; many risk their lives -- and some lose their lives.

But for the rest of us, the civilian majority, our government asks very little. Except for April 15. On this day, our government asks that we pay our fair share of taxes to keep our beloved country strong and safe.

Freedom isn't free. That's what the courageous World War II veterans of the American Legion taught me back in Texas Boys State decades ago. That phrase had special meaning for them. Those guys had seen buddies blown apart at Anzio or Guadalcanal. 

 grew up in a different era. There was no draft, and while I have friends and family members who joined the military, most of my peers, like me, opted for the security and prosperity of the private sector.

This country has showered me with the blessings of liberty. So what do I owe my country in return? Paying my fair share of taxes, it seems, is the least I can do. Thanks to President Obama and the Democratic Congress, 95 percent of Americans will get a tax cut this year. No one -- not even the wealthiest 1 percent -- will have to pay higher income taxes until 2011.


Begala uses this lilting tribute to our IRS overlords as a segue into attacking the tea parties:

That a bunch of overpaid media millionaires would lead a faux-populist revolt is comical. They somehow held their populist instincts in check as George W. Bush and the Republicans cut taxes on the idle rich and put the screws to the working stiffs.

Bush's tax policies were a godsend to the Paris Hilton class, but they sent the country on the road to bankruptcy and helped ruin the economy. But now that we the people have decided to set things right, now that we've hired Obama to fix the mess conservatives created, now they're protesting?

What kind of government do we get when so many kowtow to the authority of the state and achieve rapture through the simple, utilitarian act of obeying the law?

Government is not a living entity to be worshipped. It is, at best, a utility - and would that it were run as well as Verizon or AT&T. Of course, everyone realizes that government is a necessary part of living in America and that those who toil for it - for the most part - are deserving of our admiration and respect.

But in America, it is the people - in the aggregate - who deserve Begala and Stoller's ecominums. We who created government, who require it to bend to our will (ideally), are far more important in the scheme of things than the force of nature that government has become and that liberals wish to use as a club to shape their utopia. It is unseemly in a republic for citizens to actually get excited about obeying the law and paying one's taxes. In fact, it's goofy. Gleefully handing over one's property to an entity that is just as likely as build a bridge to nowhere as build something much more useful like an F-22 reveals a worldview that doesn't respect the value of their neighbor's property, that what belongs to the citizen also belongs to the government.

Stoller and Begala's hymns of praise to government nauseate me. The reason is simple; you cannot value freedom if you value government above all else. April 15 is not a day of celebration. It is just another day that we can thank our stars that we live in the United States and people like Begala and Stoller haven't won - yet.

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