Question of the Day: You can’t escape death or taxes (or possibly death by taxation), so which is your preferred method of paying the levy? Property tax (on land), property tax (on items like automobiles, airplanes, boats, household wares), income tax (graduated or ungraduated), sales tax, other excise taxes. Some places favor a flat tax (with none of your favorite deductions) that collects the same percentage from the poor as they do from the rich. What percentage should the threshold be if you favor a flat income tax?
There are so-called progressive taxes that tax consumption – do those appeal to you more?
What about the US, where the poor pay no income taxes and get “free money” from the government (Earned Income Tax Credit) when they file an income tax return? (Note: The amount of the EITC benefit depends on a recipient’s income, number of children, and filing status. Generally, families with more children are eligible for a higher credit.)
In places where there is no separation of church and state, taxes go to the state religion, which is tasked with making people moral.
- Austria: Church tax is mandatory for members of the Catholic and Protestant churches.
- Denmark: National Church of Denmark (Lutheran) members pay a mandatory church tax.
- Finland: Members of the two state churches, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and the Finnish Orthodox Church, must pay church tax.
- Germany: Church tax is mandatory for members of religious communities that are corporations under public law, such as the Catholic and Protestant churches.
- Sweden: Members of the Church of Sweden (Lutheran) pay a church tax, though the government has moved to make it optional with a checkbox on the tax return.
- Switzerland: Church taxes are generally mandatory for members of recognized churches, with variations depending on the canton.
So we’re on to your Sunday Sermonette (it’s cunning of me to make that transition, isn’t it?). Should the state tax churches and charitable organizations?
Bullet Points:
** In the 1970s, following the Vietnam War, the US Army was rotten. I was shocked by the presence of “open posts” where anyone could drive on without being challenged. USAF bases and USN/USMC bases were better controlled. I’m not saying that there wasn’t mischief going on, just that there weren’t dozens of whores down by the PX openly selling their wares on USN/USMC bases, where the whores were obliged to remain outside of the main gate. From what I understand, the Army slipslided backward to those halcyon days in the 70s, where there were hand-to-hand drug deals on the streets of Army posts.
** BRM brings up the subject of the National Rifle Association, which has been just as corrupt as the DC Swamp in recent years.
** The general perception is that the Europeans skipped a generation in fighter design. And, by and large, that is true. The Europeans don’t have a 5th-generation fighter project of their own. The British contributed to the American Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter through their expertise in jet-powered VTOL technology (F-35B variant). Rolls-Royce provided the LiftSystem, which, coupled with the F-35’s Pratt & Whitney F135 engine, made the F-35B variant capable of performing STOVL. Where the British can go from here is another debate.
** Standards? Gomes, an illegal alien police officer was charged with raping a mentally disabled woman. The prior arrest for domestic abuse and the fact that he’s not an American citizen have Californians questioning why the Belmont Police Department hired Gomes in the first place. A 2022 bill signed by California Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom repealed the requirement that peace officers, including police, corrections, and highway patrol officers, must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Belmont Police Chief Ken Stenquist boasted about Gomes at his hiring four months ago, saying, “He was in the Brazilian Air Force and part of their Air Force Police. He was a full-time police soldier and left that position when he moved to the United States. He enjoys practicing jiu jitsu and attending church when he’s not working.” The remark was made despite Chief Stenquist receiving phone calls “from the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office and East Palo Alto Police warning him that both agencies had rejected Gomes because of his domestic violence arrest in 2017,” according to ABC 7’s I-Team. Documents detailing the domestic abuse allegations show Gomes’ wife had accused him of striking her in the face, causing massive bruising, and scratching her face.
** The Russian decision to invade Ukraine in 2022 was a scheme to seize a prosperous neighbor and revive the Russian economy quickly. It was a shock when the enraged Ukrainians fought back, deflating Russian dreams of economic salvation. By 2025, Russian internet commentators admitted that the war in Ukraine was lost and wanted Putin held accountable. Russia tried to spend its way out of defeat and failed. Mercenary Norks and Chinese didn’t do much for them.
** President Trump announced on Friday that he is revoking Harvard University’s tax-exempt status, following a freeze of $2.2 billion in federal grants due to the school’s refusal to address alleged antisemitism on campus. “Remember, Tax Exempt Status is contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!”
The Russian Mercenary Plague
Since 2018, Russian private military contractors or mercenaries have proliferated across Africa. The largest mercenary outfit is the Wagner Group, which Yevgeny Prigozhin led until he died in 2023. Russian mercenaries serve as an essential mechanism by which Moscow seeks to reduce its growing international economic and political isolation. Mercenaries help accomplish this by expanding Russia’s global footprint and influence relatively cheaply.
Although Russia has sought to capitalize on its ambiguous relationships with mercenaries to ignore international norms, Moscow has taken public and direct control over these groups in countries in Africa. Russian mercenaries have operated a nimble expeditionary force, seemingly unencumbered by international rules of war, which has bolstered authoritarian regimes in Africa at the expense of the civilian populations’ and the countries’ overall security.
Russia’s armed presence in Africa has changed from mid-2023 to September 2024.
- Russian mercenaries have a clear presence in six African countries.
- Despite the creation of the Africa Corps (an entity created after Wagner’s failed 2023 rebellion, intended to resume Wagner’s efforts in Africa), the Wagner Group’s structure and brand continue to be used in several countries to sustain existing operations. This structure can vary depending on the country.
- Rather than addressing security issues and building defense capacity for countries in which they operate, Russian mercenaries seek to exploit and profit from insecurity.
- The security situation in countries employing Russian mercenaries is worsening. The number of attacks and fatalities committed by militant Islamist groups has increased significantly since Russian mercenaries have replaced United Nations and West African security forces.
- An analysis of public sentiment shows that those in several African countries hold more negative than positive views of Russian mercenaries.
- Russian mercenary activities affect the countries that employ them and the surrounding countries. Borders do not constrain mercenary-perpetrated violence and illicit economic activity, and have affected entire regions.
Chinese Espionage Networks
For decades, China’s cyber espionage centered on stealing intellectual property from the United States to bolster its military and economy. However, as hackers grew more proficient at penetrating sensitive U.S. systems, these efforts moved beyond theft to positioning themselves to disrupt critical infrastructure physically. Last year, U.S. officials all but admitted defeat in halting China’s growing cyber arsenal when it revealed a series of hacks that left Beijing poised to disable ports, power grids, and other critical systems around the country.
A similar progression may be unfolding among China’s spy network. Much like China’s hackers graduated from stealing trade secrets to building sophisticated cyber weapons, its spies in the United States may be developing the skills to sabotage critical infrastructure during a physical conflict.
In recent years, China’s U.S. spy network expanded its activities to more aggressively target dissidents within the diaspora. U.S. residents have been stalked, harassed, assaulted, and had their property damaged in retaliation for speaking out against Beijing.
Much like China’s hackers graduated from stealing trade secrets to building sophisticated cyber weapons, its spies in the United States may be developing the skills to sabotage critical infrastructure during a physical conflict.
So-called “China repatriation squads” have secretly hunted down dissidents, pressuring them to return to China by, among other tactics, threatening or imprisoning their relatives. A former U.S. correctional officer, acting on Beijing’s behalf, burned down a sculpture in the Mojave Desert depicting President Xi Jinping’s head as a coronavirus in 2021. When a former pro-democracy leader from China, now a naturalized U.S. citizen, announced a run for the House of Representatives, a Chinese intelligence operative hired someone to derail the campaign by setting the candidate up with prostitutes, assaulting him, or tampering with his car to cause a crash.
China-linked groups have also incited mob violence. During Xi’s 2023 visit to San Francisco, groups with ties to the Chinese state orchestrated coordinated assaults on anti-Beijing protesters, coming at them with flagpoles and chemical sprays, and tossing sand in their eyes.
These cases highlight China’s obsession with silencing its critics. However, they also demonstrate a shift toward more violent methods and clandestine tradecraft that could be redirected toward sabotage of infrastructure targets.
U.S. investigations reveal that China has amassed a deep bench of sources and contacts, including law enforcement officers, in multiple U.S. cities who are willing to harm civilians and damage property on Beijing’s behalf.
In one case, operatives posing as art dealers interested in purchasing a work by a dissident artist secretly installed surveillance equipment in his workplace and a GPS tracker on his car. It is not hard to imagine how operatives trained in such covert surveillance could instead plant explosives, start fires, or carry out assassinations.
There are a few clear indications that China is actively planning acts of sabotage here. However, U.S. authorities have tracked dozens of incidents in which Chinese nationals, sometimes posing as tourists, attempted to access military bases and other sensitive sites. U.S. national security officials are concerned that such incidents may signal early efforts by Beijing to test security and develop plans to attack these locations physically.
Identify the Aircraft
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If you read the fine print, you’re cheating – it’s not that hard of an ID.
Parting Shot
back by request
End
I believe a national sales tax should replace income tax. 100% of your income is yours, and the taxes you pay are based on consumption. States should be the same too, but that’s up to them i suppose. People can move to states where that situation is better for them leading to a population and political shift (think congressional seats)
Simple Man, I cast my vote with yours, in light of what is constitutional. The lateral abilities of states to tax how they please can cause relocation. IMHO is a very small percentage for those who actually do. The remaining”would” if they ” could.” Family ties, community familiarity ect factor greatly, I believe. We’re in the very independent state of TX for various reasons, and split our year up back in the DPR of what was Oregon to be with family.
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Mail in voting? MAID? Legal weed? More than 1/2 a dozen times WTP in Oregon voted NO to sales tax. Our betters decided whats best for us is now a hidden sales tax. All these taxes and control points have been pioneered by the Salem bureaucratic Orwellian’s for the rest of the nation to follow. They have surpassed Newsomomics with light rail projects and ” bridges.” They want to extend their arm past the honey pot of lottery funds for “education” and accelerate revenues beyond NV with “legal prostitution”. The DPR, “Democratic People’s Republic” no longer provides a serf to pump your gas. NJ will follow, just like Colorado did with the 4:20 financial “green rush” causing a moral fiasco. The 541 rural Oregonians love their land and care for it and each other.
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The 503 voting base dictates statewide reg’s that affect almost every aspect of life. One of them being the Construction Contractors Board, which I’ve had to answer to as a Climber since 1996, and in 2019 the new ” Property Services Contractor” licensing which was 3x more regulated… just to push a broom.
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The white collar naturalist’s all pent up in their offices M-F with ugly urban commutes, really enjoy all the beauty of nature in the various topographies Oregon provides. I respect the need for ” balanced preservation.” How to properly fund the admin and maintenance is a good question.
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They consider any government lands to be preserved for their recreation and not resourced for revenue. That’s where it gets personal with a couple more of our current businesses.
X2 to you both. Yet, an argument can be made for no federal taxes if, as history shows, tariffs will replace those “revenues”. I happen to agree. The rub is politicians want the citizenry to be under their thumb scrambling, hence their opposition. If the shift can be made then the DC tide may change to more of what The Founders had in mind; get in, do decent work for the country, get out.
Taxes are a lot like sins – we each have our favorite. In the case of taxes, our favorite are those that touch us the least. I don’t have a problem with the gasoline tax. You pay for roads as you go – unless you have an electric car. Then you LOVE the gasoline tax. Those of us with internal combustion engines blaggard the Tesla drivers for driving through the loophole.
Don’t forget two-wheelers…and that coming from someone who spent a lot of time doing long rides on the road bike (I was younger back then), but never hogged the road…even had a deer run into me (or was it me into it?).
Yes, some taxes are acceptable, unfortunately even fuel taxes are not being used to keep the roads and bridges in good stead, they are mostly a terrible ROI for [forced] taxes paid, making them a theft without consequence.
In California, highway taxes are diverted to support illegal aliens who vote illegally for democrats
X2 on the gas tax.
I like good roads. Cities collect theirs at the pump, and through the water/sewer bill.
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EV’s can pay a mileage tax.( I know that could turn into ” big brother ” issues @ P.O.S. )
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We paid ours in Oregon with Mrs W’s prius, through her registration which was higher than my jeep.
Before I retired I would’ve preferred a sales tax over income tax, but now – hate to brag – my income is low enough to incur no Federal income tax, and there’s no state income tax here. I enjoy knowing that I will never pay a penny of income taxes for the rest of my life, and would not welcome a Federal sales tax.
I don’t begrudge property tax because 1) mine is so low and 2) much of it goes to roads and law enforcement. Half goes to education which in Oregon is not used very efficiently, but at least it’s free day care and meals for the little ones.
There’s a good argument that retirees should get a full or at least partial property tax exemption. I think oldsters should get a break from funding schools, but on the other hand they use more health care.
You bring up an interesting point. Why is my healthcare, or lack of healthcare, a matter of Federal concern (and taxation)? Yes, I know they tax us on it, but what if they didn’t? What would happen to the price of healthcare? I leave that to Dan, Mike_C, and Boron to expound on because I’m not a healthcare person. What if there were no Medicare/Medicaid/MediCal, ObamaCare, etc.? How does the federal govenment’s capacity to print money (borrow endlessly) impact healthcare?
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In fiscal year 2024, the federal government spent approximately 27% of its budget on healthcare programs and services, totaling $1.9 trillion. This includes spending on health insurance programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act, as well as discretionary spending on veterans’ healthcare, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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How much of that was used properly and how much of it went to graft or was wasted? Your tax dollars at work?
The cost of medications are set by medicare so the drug companies dont take anything less.
Insurance mainly drive cost, couple that to the federal and state governments getting their greedy mitts on it…never bodes well for patient’s bank accounts.
The surgerycenterok.com was founded by local surgeons who started their own medical practice without hiring all the paper-pushers. Last I heard their prices are an 80% discount from the local hospitals the surgeons used to work at. If surgeries cost 80% less then medical insurance premiums can cost 80% less. Poof, instant affordable healthcare. Happily for the medical industry, the 3,000+ page Affordable Care Act stopped that by banning the creation of new doctor-owned hospitals or the expansion of existing ones.
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More recently, joincrowdhealth.com claims to reduce a $3K/month family insurance premium to a $500/month payment, by smart shopping. It’s not a premium because it’s not insurance; the company has not promised to pay. But if you have a track record of contributing to others’ bills then people will usually pay yours.
A physician is probably the last person to ask about healthcare economics. We (generally) are remarkably ignorant about the whole thing. Which is not surprising because MDs are generally ignorant about everything except their subspecialty.
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That said, I will note that the “rack rate” for medical services (what you see on the bill) is rarely what is actually paid to the hospital or physician. The actual reimbursement is almost always HIGHLY discounted from the billed rate. Large payors (“private” insurance or the government) pretty much dictate what they are willing to pay. Let’s say that Medicare says “I will give you 25% of your asking price on this kind of procedure. Take it or leave it.” Except for concierge medicine providers, everyone has to bend over, spread the cheeks, and say, “Yes, I’ll take it. Thank you, Daddy.) So let’s say that we need to take in $200 to NOT LOSE money on procedure X. We aim for getting $300 (because we’d like to make a little profit, plus some accounts will be bad and we will NEVER get reimbursement, so the “good” ones end up de facto subsidizing the bad ones, just like every other business). Now we know that Daddy Govt will discount 75% off the top, so to get $300 we bill for $1200. This is the (stupid and transparent) game that everyone plays. Who gets hurt in this kabuki? Not the privately insured (within reason). Not the truly indigent who are covered by Daddy. Not the deadbeats who skip out on everything and have a credit score south of their body temperature. The ones who get screwed are the little guys who work hard but don’t have good (or any) insurance, like a marginal small business, or some poor bastard working three “gig” jobs part time. The US medical system is cruel to the deserving poor. It coddles the parasites and the assholes.
I was unclear. Why do the little guys get screwed? Because if you don’t have Blue Cross or Daddy Govt “paying” your bill, the hospital comes after you for the full $1200 (in our totally made-up example), even though everyone else is paying $300.
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I think this shameful practice of screwing the little guy is changing (and may be largely gone) but it was in place when I was still doing clinical work. I also found out that I was NOT allowed to waive the co-pay for a covered patient. As an example, I had a Medicaid patient who had had a kidney transplant. She would skip scheduled visits because she didn’t have (or didn’t want to pay) the $20 co-pay. (I never figured out which. Liked her as a person, but a little cagey and slippery. Anyway …) So I went to the clinic front desk and told her to just not collect the co-pay. I got a call from the dreaded Administration People not long after. “What are you doing? Do you realize that if we submit a claim to Medicaid without also requiring the co-pay then that constitutes a fraudulent billing?” I have no idea if that’s legally true, but I got yelled at hard enough to not do it again. I did pay that patient’s co-pay out of my own pocket a few times after that, but that’s not really sustainable across the set of all patients.
Miss a property tax payment and lose it all.
Not what the founders envisioned.
A flat tax sounds good, but will not remain a flat tax after politicians get through messing with it. That’s why I lean toward consumption taxes.
Base security post Vietnam: a guard unit in a community near Omaha needed some heavy equipment to get some work done, but the paperwork was doing the usual. They sent a guy who acted like he knew what he was doing to SAC AFB. There, he proceeded to load the heavy equipment onto a trailer and then drove the truck out of the base and back to his guard unit.
Frank, your a get’r done guy writing in 3rd person? Awesome! Yesterday our blog author/ mentor commented that in some cases it’s better to do it and… well y’all in uniforms know the rest of those experiences relating to ROE I’m sure.
In the case stated, was forgiveness even required? Did the Equipment get returned without any snafu regs?
Normally when I scrounged stuff when I was in the Navy it stayed scrounged. No deposit, no return. I think that’s built into the system.
Works in hospitals too. It’s amazing what you can get away with if you do it confidently. I found, ahem, four rooms’ worth of almost-new Steelcase furniture, for example. Took several nights to transfer it all from Radiology Administration offices to Cardiology. I was challenged ONCE by a security guard. I bitched about “can’t believe I have to move this crap myself. And using a dolly for this bookcase. Hey, you don’t happen to know where there’s a spare handtruck, do ya? Someone took mine. Damn thieves. Gonna take all night with this fukkin thing. Can you give me a hand next trip, buddy?” That caused the guard to walk away and ignore me the rest of the night.
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The furniture was going to be sold by weight for scrap. (I wouldn’t steal furniture that people actually needed/were using. Not unless I really disliked them….) Somehow the Rads Admin people had budget for new furniture all the time. They wouldn’t transfer (or sell) it to Medicine for some reason. Being ecologically minded and a god son of Gaia, I heroically saved it from the scrap heap. Yay me.
Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt
That was a common occurrence between units, pilfering unused equipment, furniture, supplies. Only unit we stole from was physical therapy and the Lithotripter clinic, they got anything they wanted and were arrogant in their demeanor. Thought they ran and was the sole support piggy bank for the hospital.
Can you imagine the paperwork involved in trying to do that. The system must have been built up to discourage that type of behavior. Return it-impossible!!
I can’t take credit for feats of derring-do performed by other, more heroic, figures. I don’t mind passing along their stories to inspire others :)
“I can’t take credit for feats of derring-do”
Depends on the statute of limitations….
Mike_C: Admit nothing, deny everything, make counterallegations, and find a scapegoat (I blame EdB – for everything from bad weather to a sinking ship). If I lose a sock in the wash, it has to be EdB’s fault.
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Lockheed Ventura
2. Hawker Hurricane
3. Alenia C-27J Spartan
4. North American RA-5C Vigilante
#1 is the Beech C-45H. You gotta love the way they sound.
I knew the windows didn’t look like the Ventura but that it was just an odd variant. Kudos.
Klaus nailed it, yes, it’s the Beech. I thought it might trip you up.
Newsome might consider hiring the Chinese infiltration teams or the Wagners as cops. The Chinese teams probably have the competitive advantage because they are already here, historically work cheap and presumably know their way around already, but the Wagners might be able to catch up. Or maybe, Tren de Aragua. They doan need no steenking badges or, considering all the tats, uniforms ether and likely have their own weapons already.
When I was in harness in the Greater Los Angeles area, the Chinese usually used the Sheriff’s department for their repatriation (kidnapping) and extortion. This is back before the Sheriff, Lee Bacca, was convicted and imprisoned. His wife was Chinese.
The Love Boat: This is what happens when a bunch of newer bureaucrats decide what is working needs “fixing”, failing human nature in the process, then complain (and hang a few people in charge) when the result obvious to anyone else happens. Duh.
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Maybe a National sales tax…I’d go for that if the other 82 taxes on our earnings were eliminated, make these bums operate on an actual budget, not the smoke-n-mirrors slight of hand baloney they’ve been peddling for six decades.
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Sidebar: Major hit piece on Fetterman in the NYT’s Sunday Mag today…his utility is over, besides the fact the guy randomly walks out into traffic and needs a care facility . Regardless, The Dem Machine is beyond scum.
“U.S. investigations reveal that China has amassed a deep bench of sources and contacts, including law enforcement officers, in multiple U.S. cities who are willing to harm civilians and damage property on Beijing’s behalf.”
China has others on the payroll, their spy balloon was allowed to see what ever it wanted on it’s trip across the US…
IIRC back in the 80s, Goodfellow AFB in San Angelo, Texas allowed civilians to go to the Officers and EM clubs on base and drink alcohol, socialize, etc. (to bond with the community). All well and good till gangbangers started going and they had some serious incidents. ( and Goodfellow was an intelligence center, or lack thereof).
Fortunately, many of the stamped documents considered classified are of no real value to anyone. I recall taking a Palestinian into custody once (Force 17 – Arafat’s guy) and he had classification stamps. He forged documents and passed them back to his masters as “classified” when they were his own creations.
When I think of “classification” I think of Barack/Big Mike and their coterie of communists, misfits and freaks who could NEVER have received access to ANYTHING yet had access to the family jewels. The same is true of Congress (lots of congress types not just Swalwell and Fang/Fang or the late Feinstein).
No direct taxes on citizens or their property/career. Period.
Tariffs, licensing (eg use of gov lands), and other such to fund a LIMITED government. Gov should secure our borders/safety (mil and LE), provide a level playing field and conflict resolution (courts), and damn little else.
There was a time when I would have said the same thing. But I’m not sure that would work. Or are you only discussing federal taxation and not state taxation? I don’t disagree that we’re over taxed and need to thin it down along with the size of government, but as we shrink FedGov, State/County/Local government taxes tend to increase. Yes, the Federal government could divest itself from BLM and other nationally owned (non-military) land, but the States would pick it up in the near term. Some regulation to make things regular is good. The problem we will always face is how much is too much – and that’s always very subjective.
I’m a little late to the party….Big Kentucky Derby party last night.
I’ve been in favor of the Fair Tax plan for a while.
https://fairtax.org/about/how-fairtax-works
I’m good with property taxes. You pay for what you have…
Re the birds-
1. Beechcraft D-18/C-45
2. Hawker Hurricane
3. Alenia C-27J Spartan
4. North American RA-5C Vigilante
I had ONE ride in the back of an A-5 back in the day. Scared the crap out of me because you only have those two little windows, and if the pilot is not telling you what he’s doing, you’re at his mercy! Grrrr…
The back seat of the SR-71 or WSO on an A-12 would have been cool. But somehow I think it would be more fun in the front seat.
Property taxes are what drive retired people out of their homes. As for businesses – does a factory that generates more dollars per acre than a farmer does end up paying the same property tax for the same acreage? I know the gasohol silliness allowed farmers to make money almost as fast as DC politicians, but normally farm income per acre is much less than other types of businesses, so other businesses can more easily afford any tax increase while it can drive a farmer out of business. Is this a good idea?
Usually, zoning for business leads to much higher property taxes than residential or agricultural zoning.
This speaks to your point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwEaUaAsCKw
I raised that point because I got to watch a group of businesses take the “unfair tax that violates equal rights” to court, and the court bought that line. Tax rates for farmers went up.
Way late to the game. I think Texas is similar to other states. At my last place, I had 8 acres under agricultural exemption. I was raising goats on it. I paid about $15 a year for property tax. My house (3600 sq ft) and the 1 acre they taxed was a few thousand dollars in property tax.
a silly question:
what right does a person who’s never worked (I think you know what I mean in this instance) a day in their life have to set the amount of taxation I should pay for my food, the land/property/house that I purchased/built with my money and my hands, my (method of) transportation – ad inf?
I’m very ticklish; I”m greatly opposed to all those little hands in my pockets.
I’m very happy to be assessed for police, firemen, armed services by whatever means, but I want all politicians digging sewerage by day (I’ll supply the shovels) and meeting at night to determine what laws are necessary.
I’d like to pay the doctor directly, out of my pocket; I don’t want my “healthcare dollar” going though multiple layers of secretaries, administrators, and politicians peeling off the pennies, nickels, and dimes and I definitely don’t want to pay for my SIL’s healthcare (she’s a hypochondriac who comes down with whatever the latest condition the NYT says is fashionable)
I think you get the general idea.
taxing churches – is that the physical buildings or the corporations collecting money in the name of G-d?
when I was as yet unmarried, I found myself being dragged by whomever was my current to various churches, shuls, and one mosque (in NYC); I never met/saw G-d in any one of them
X2..all of it, especially this brilliant visual: “I’m very ticklish; I”m greatly opposed to all those little hands in my pockets.”
Me too….gettin’ really old the amount of baloney these people continue to conjure up to relieve us of more of our cash, usually forced with no say, and sometimes with a stiff penalty for not paying it or paying it late. Seriously off the Constitutional constrain reservation.
The power to tax is the power to confiscate.
One of the reasons we don’t tax religions is so that the guvmint can’t tax the religion out of existence because they don’t agree with it. First amendment.
Granted, the building/property is not the religion, but it is where it’s generally exercised.
Of course, by this logic, there should be no taxes on guns. I’m good with that.
Or printing presses (radio, tv stations?).
But property taxes empower confiscation, and when a pensioner has stayed in a home long enough to see values rise around him or her, he or she should not be threatened by the rising property value when they have no gain from it.
x2
PDJT is proposing to Make Alcatraz Great Again. Epic move.
I heard that. And when the democrats are back in power, they’ll put us there.
Income Tax is an egregious, Bolshevik sin. Let’s see it gone, along with the Fed.