Whose money is it?
By Melancton Smith • Wednesday April 13, 2011 5:51 AM PDT • 3 Comments
The Washington Times has an interesting op-ed up about Justice Kagan’s view of money. Here is a snippet:
Justice Kagan’s dissent gave the game away in its first sentence. The tuition tax credit, she wrote, is “diverted tax revenue.” Later, she elaborated, “Both deplete funds in the government’s coffers by transferring money to select recipients.” Only an extreme statist would write such a thing. The point of a tax credit is to let people direct their own money rather than putting it into “the government’s coffers” in the first place. Only if all money starts as government property can a tax credit be seen as taking money from government hands.
The case from which this issue arises is Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn.
Tags: Budget and Tax Policy, Law, Nanny State, Religion, Taxation 
While scary, not at all surprising.
Speedmaster | Apr 13, 2011 | Reply
Show of hands: who here is surprised that Kagan passes the test for “extreme statism?”
Henry Bowman | Apr 18, 2011 | Reply
The fact of the matter is that Kegan is correct. A tax credit does in fact divert government funds to select groups, and deplete government coffers. Any argument opposed, the above included, is to deny the fact that the tax is already in place. Much like the wages that you collect from your employer, the taxes that the government collects becomes theirs once they take possession of those funds. Like the wages you collect from an employer, unless the employer stops giving those funds, they are yours, and once you cash that check, your employer no longer has a right to those funds – they are yours. Regardless of the fact that your wages are voluntary, and the taxes are taken against your will, sadly my friends we live in a Democracy not a Republic (the Republic ended on April 12th 1861), and so you must convince your neighbors that your money should not be taken against your will.
To Kegan’s point, the fact is that it is simply wrong to give favoritism to one group over another utilizing tax funds which we are all responsible for paying. Tax credits, while long used in the fight to get back some of our money, are just that, begging to get something back. Much like states succumbing to National Highway Authority pressure for speed limits, etc... in an effort to get back some of the national gas taxes, tax credits are shoving hay up the wrong end of the horse in the war against taxation. Much like “education vouchers”, taxes credits by their very existence, lend legitimacy and argue the government’s right to steal that money in the first place and thus are a VERY BAD tool in the battle for liberty, limited government, and reduced taxation. We must fight to end those taxes, not beg to get some back at the expense of others. Once you let them [government] take the money, it is in fact, no longer your money, it becomes… their money. The defense of your liberty MUST hold the line at its defense, not at winning it back. Remember, possession is 9/10ths of the law. PLEASE remember this the next time that there is a mil levy override, or other such tax increase on your ballot, and you decide that the only effort you are willing to expend is simply voting. Either join the fight to repeal old, and stop new taxes, or become comfortable in the fact that you are a slave.
joe4liberty | Apr 19, 2011 | Reply