Seriously Governor Dayton?
Governor
Mark Dayton was recently quoted in the St. Paul Pioneer Press as follows: “This
unwillingness to pay taxes…is going to be the death of this country if it’s not
corrected.”
The
only inference that can reasonably be drawn from this comment is that Governor
Dayton believes America’s success is positively correlated with the people’s
willingness to pay more of their income to the government. Really? Are you serious?
From the moment our Founding Fathers set foot on American soil, their
belief was that liberty, prosperity, and the ability to pursue happiness were
fostered by keeping taxes low, thereby allowing people to take care of
themselves and their families.
This
limited government model was not just a good theory. It proved to be more successful in practice than anyone
could have imagined. In less than
200 years, America became the leading economic engine in the world, providing a
standard of living to its citizens that was the envy of the world by the time I
was born in 1961. Our prosperity
continued through the 1990s and into the early 21st Century. Meanwhile, European nations were
creating welfare states. Eastern
Europe crumbled in the late 20th Century and now Western European nations are
going down one after another. Big,
centralized government did not work.
Capitalism and freedom did.
And
it is not as though Americans pay no taxes. As of 2007 (the most recent year for which I found data) the
top 20% of income earners had a 25.1% effective federal income tax rate. Add state and local taxes, and these
folks pay around 40% of their income in taxes. And the evil top 1% of income earners pay closer to 45% of
their income to the government.
The
choice in this election is clear.
On the one hand we have leaders like President Obama and Governor Dayton
who measure our greatness by how much government does for us and how much we
are willing to pay. On the other
hand we have leaders who measure greatness by how much free people can do without government and how a smaller government can work well without bankrupting the next generation
Absolutely dead-on accurate Senator Thompson. Thank you. We need more people to stand up and speak the truth! For all of the "tax the rich and distribute it in programs to others" supporters, a question: Where do you draw the line? What is an "equal outcome" provided by government look like? Why stop at taxing the rich at 50, or 60%? Why don't we tax the rich (including the Governor and his family) at 99.9%? Would he approve? Would it be enough to ensure everyone in Minnesota has exactly the same "spoils" in life? Who will oversee that you do not have more than your neighbor? How will that be enforced? Ridiculous? - Of course it is. But so is much of this over-reaching, social-engineering government we have today. History shows that applying socialistic principles destroys a free society. Let's instead restore our free society, beginning with the election this fall.
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