The World According to Oatney

This is tax tyranny, not tax reform

Supporters of an income tax in Tennessee, led and financed in large part by big labor, are again running their mouths claiming income inequities in Tennessee. They claim that the tax on food is too high and penalizes the poor. On that point, I agree-I think that there should be no sales tax on food bought at the grocery store.

However, the discussion always goes back to the need for an income tax in Tennessee, because, say these people, the richest families in the state are getting richer while "average" Tennesseans are taking home less. (I never liked the way these people use the term "average," as if it is contemptable to be neither rich nor poor.)

The fact is that the cost of living and the price of land statewide are notoriously low, so much so that a lot of people are moving here to live cheaply and buy land more cheaply than the places from which they came. The low cost of living here actually makes conditions better for those who make very little money. I know this is a reality because I know it from past experience, and from having lived in states that had the "fair" taxation system these "fiberals" envision. If you've never experienced having your meager income taxed at all levels, (federal, state, and local, and depending on the locality, city as well as county) I can tell you that paying income tax can literally lower your standard of living-it can and will make the modest man a poor one.

I won't get into how the progressive income tax came out of the Communist Manifesto. I will not explain how some of these people really want a socialist arrangement, where the poor remain poor, the middle class gets poor, and the wealthy are just destroyed-and the ruling class, which I imagine in the ultimate liberal vision would be the Democratic Party, would live as kings.

I will only say that if you support an income tax in Tennessee, you are telling the poor and middle class to stay poor or "average." Why? Better yourselves, and the government will tax it away.

This twisted vision of Tennessee's future must be rejected, and if it is not, those who force it down our collective throats must be made to pay.

posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 10:39 PM