Liberals who operate in the government and those who follow them never know when enough is enough. They continually want more of the dollars earned by the hard working and the wise investors of our state. One of the mantras is that the rich should pay their fair share which is a disguised way of saying that those with more should foot the bill for all the others who have less, a pure Marxian doctrine. 

When the tax surcharge on the Arkansas State Income Tax was being discussed with the possibility of eliminating it, immediately the greedy leeches that can never suck enough dollars from the citizens began to moan, whine, and complain about losing the money that could be used for more worthy projects. No matter that the citizens have gotten along for years without all the money grabbing programs that have been devised to better the lot of mankind, and who can still get along without government’s dubious help.

 Now back to fair and it cuts both ways. What is fair about property owners paying the lion’s share of taxes to pay for schools when many of them have no children involved? What is fair for allowing those who don’t pay property taxes vote in millage rate elections to raise the taxes on property owned by others?  And what is fair about the continuing grab of more and more of income with no appreciable results for the extra money taken, except more state employees and larger bureaucracies? Doesn’t cutting cost of government fit in there somewhere? Now that wouldn’t be fair to all of those who have their hands out for more largesse from the public trough.

When cuts are proposed, as in the case of eliminating the surtax, the hue and cry is for all those that will be left out in the cold with nowhere to turn. When the welfare laws were undergoing revisions in the 1990’s, the liberals brought up all kinds of horror stories with appeals for compassion for those that were going to starve, be out in the cold, and reduced to begging for daily bread. None of that happened. People were forced to look for work and as a result the nation’s welfare rolls were reduced drastically. People were able to function normally without government aid and as a consequence the economy grew.

But no thanks to the liberals who fought the changes until they ran out of ways to stop the revisions. The same changes can happen in Arkansas too, if the politicians will begin to serve the people (read that the taxpayers) and create incentives for people to better themselves without the ill advised more help from the government. That involves stopping the insane idea that the reason for the failure of the programs is that not enough money is available to do all the wonderful things politicians dream up. But to liberal politicians there is never enough money and if they had it all, they still wouldn’t be satisfied.

There is nothing fair about taking more and more money from those who earn it. It is an activity that is counter productive for building a strong economy and serves no purpose, except to further the recipient’s dependence on government, and to ensure that those who are handing out the aid will be elected the next time.

Thankfully there are term limits in Arkansas which serves to speed up the removal of those politicians who abuse the taxpayer’s goodwill with their phony compassion in the name of fairness. 

Fairness says that all who are able will pull their weight. Greed says give me more with nothing fair for anyone about that notion, including those who receive the handout.

© 02-02-2005 DEC