Every time we support an expansion of our government, with a new program or the expansion of an existing one, we drive another tax burden onto every citizen.  Someone has to pay for it.  Using debt, through money-printing or Q.E., only prolongs the cost, hides it from current view, and places a crushing debt burden on our grandchildren.

Since we pay for every single federal expenditure, should citizens not question its effectiveness and efficacy?  And if we citizens deem government spending excessive, do we not have the right and obligation to end waste?

Search the dark corners of politicians’ thought processes.  Look for the underlying assumptions in their decisions.  Consider the premise, the foundation of these thoughts, ideas, and decisions.  And if the premise is to default to a federal solution to every problem, question the outcome of that idea.  

For instance, if our government can solve climate change and global pollution by destroying fossil fuel production, did all these trillions spent to date prevent climate change?  Is that a reasonable outcome on which to sped resources?  After all, they are spending your money.  Similar examples of failure abound in every industry: medicine, education, banking.

Federal revenue (including debt repayment) comes from the citizen taxpayer.  Government is not a profit center; everything it spends it must take from others in the form of taxes or debt.  Massive government spending means the private economy and the individual are losing more of their earnings to an already bloated government.  Federal spending is taking an ever larger portion of GDP. 

Tax rate reduction is mandatory as a means to limit the federal government.  Tax reductions are moral because they allow the earner to keep more of what he has legally worked for.

Socialism gradually confiscates one’s earning, through ever higher and progressive tax increases.  Communism and fascism are the end result of more government.  They reach their terminus when the majority of private earnings are confiscated by a central government.  We don’t have to go down that path, but we must start now to prevent our own destruction.

So before we criticize tax rate reductions, we would do well to consider a system wherein the government takes the vast majority of personal earnings through taxes.  The current tax rate takes well over a third of our earnings (37%).  Add on all the local, regional, and state taxes, and we pay over half of our income to governments and their bureaucracies.  Think about when it reaches 75 or 100%, Comrade.

Faulty economic theory, and a thorough lack of understanding human nature, is the Achilles heel of socialism and communism.  They presume that only the State can provide, and that the individual is incapable.  Yet every nation that has embraced these ideologies has failed.  The common leftist refrain is that they will do it better.  Their insistence on central control is the definition of insanity.  

Socialism, communism, and fascism ignore mankind’s G-d-given right to freedom to choose and his right to ownership of what he has worked for.  Ignoring this inalienable right is why socialism, communism, and central control fail — and always will.

Communism’s opposite is free-market capitalism, which is nothing more than individual rights to free choice.  The foundational premise of individual freedom is the right to ownership of property, which is the right to keep what you earn.  By inference, freedom means that we cannot and should not be taxed excessively by our government.

Our objective should always be to keep the majority of earnings in possession and under control of those who earned them, not some government bureaucrat.  A guy named Jefferson mentioned individual freedom under inalienable (coming from G-d, not man) rights in an obscure document called the Declaration of Independence. 

Jay Davidson is founder and CEO of a commercial bank.  He is a student of the Austrian School of Economics and a dedicated capitalist.  He believes there is a direct connection joining individual right and responsibility, our Constitution, capitalism, and the intent of our Creator.

Image via Pxfuel.