California Resorts To Outright Theft
Mark Levin, the author of Liberty & Tyranny, in the opening pages of his best selling book states:
“In the civil society, private property and liberty are inseparable. The individual’s right to live freely and safely and pursue happiness includes the right to acquire and possess property, which represents the fruits of his own intellectual and/or physical labor. As the individual’s time on earth is finite, so, too is his labor. The illegitimate denial or diminution of his private property enslaves him to another and denies him liberty.”
Earlier this year in May, statists(modern liberals) in California turned to the voters at the ballot box to help shore up their fiscally irresponsible state budget. Rather than balancing their budget by cutting waste and services outside the scope of legitimate government responsibilities, taxpayers were being asked to do what legislators would not: balance the state budget with tax increases. Five of the six ballot initiatives went down in flames at the polls. The only initiative to pass was Proposition 1F which prohibited government officials from receiving a pay raise during a deficit. The measure passed 75% to 25%. Voting on all initiatives clearly crossed party lines in a state which has been blue on the electoral map for years. The message from voters was clear: cut spending!
The democrat-media-complex, aptly named by Andrew Breitbart, retaliated almost immediately. The Los Angeles Times, with help from some in the national media, immediately sided with big government statists by declaring that stingy taxpayers were part of the problem, not the solution. A day after the elections the following headline in the LA Times scorned voters for their misdeeds, “California Voters Exercise Their Power and That’s the Problem.”
The statist reaction to the line drawn in the sand by voters was all too predictable. Like degenerate drug addicts who can no longer finance their dependancies through legitimate means and without the luxury of being able to print their own currency, statists have resorted to outright theft. Beginning November 1st California increased withholding of state taxes by 10%. It’s not a tax increase, but a interest-free loan without the individual taxpayer’s consent. State officials claim that all extra funds confiscated will be returned to the taxpayers in 2010 via tax refunds. After seeing their state’s fiscal situation deteriorate so badly in 2009 that actual checks issued by their state government were replaced with IOUs, even the most affable taxpayers are no doubt asking themselves:
1) Will my tax refund check bounce next year?
2) Will my refund be issued as an IOU?
3) Will the banks even accept the IOU 6 months from now?
All of these are valid questions. If the state refuses to balance its budget with spending cuts and the state has no money now, why should a taxpayer believe they will have money in Spring 2010 when the budget shortfall will be even greater?
To make matters worse, this assault on private property and liberty is occurring during a depression. Yes, I said depression. Those who claim our economic slide is a recession are in denial. Just ask the millions of Americans who have been out of work for months who have given up hope of even finding a job. Vice President Joe Biden even admitted it on October 19th when his big mouth decided to go rogue and deviated from carefully crafted White House talking points. I can remember sitting at a bar in late 2007 listening to construction workers discuss being out of work as the housing bubble began to burst. That was almost a full year before Lehman Brothers collapsed.
The statists would like us to think this is no big deal. A tax payer making $45,000 per year in California will only see an additional withholding of $30.00 per month. It’s no big deal, right? Conservatives know better! The informed conservative considers California’s actions a direct assault on the principles embodied by our nation’s founding documents and masterfully articulated by Mark Levin earlier in this article. Left unchecked, the precedent set now with the extra withholding of income will no doubt be exploited later, likely with even greater magnitude. Other state governments might adopt the same policy. I’m sure many statists in Michigan and New York are keeping a close eye on how this plays out in California. What will beltway politicians do when China cuts up their credit cards? Print more money, further devaluing our private property(income from one’s labor)? Weary of loosing their congressional seats by voting for unpopular tax increases, would Washington look to California’s latest actions as a backdoor method of closing a budget gap?
A majority of voters in California have long been in love with government provided services, the financial burden of which has come at the expense of the middle class. The bill for the inefficient and grand expansion of their state government is now due, along with all of the unintended consequences associated with it. Thomas Jefferson addressed the dangers of government provided services long ago:
“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give it to those who would not.”
Jefferson further warned that:
“A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have.”
With the present fiscal course charted by the Federal Government, all of us outside of California are facing a similar day of reckoning. Our republic’s dashboard check engine light is blinking! Will enough voters in California and the rest of our nation even bother looking at their dashboards in time for the next election cycle? Assuming they do, will they actually do something about it at the polls? Independent voters in New Jersey and Virginia did! One year from now, we will know what voters are thinking across the rest of the nation.
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You know, I never understood how politicians, especially the left, can think that spending more fixes financial problems. It never worked for me.
The “like degenerate drug addicts” phraseology appeals to me. I’ve often thought of government’s habitual borrowing/spending in this way, and of the urgency with which it entraps everyone else, in every corner of its jurisdiction, in as much indebtedness as it possibly can. Just look at the recent push by the “developed countries” to get third world small businesswomen caught up in the “microloan” schemes. They too must know the joy of insolvency! Overlook no one!
A gargantuan, risky loan becomes, in their twisted lexicon, an “asset”, albeit perhaps a toxic one. I always thought a loan was a “liability”. Of course, I’m not as clever as the people in the New York Fed.
Think of the millions of employers, who have been deputized as taxmen through paycheck withholding, and what really is their corruption. The guilt must be spread around! Government “contributes to their delinquency.”
I left my employment in December 2008, for mostly other reasons, but one side benefit has been that I have the satisfaction of knowing that I am depriving government of one opportunity to intrude on a transaction (my salary) and take its “cut”. Government simply wouldn’t put itself on a diet, so in my small way, I guess I did. So, I enjoy my pyrrhic victory, while (for now) my family attempts to survive on my spouse’s salary. The disincentives for production are simply too great. No wonder California finds it necessary to grab more from the few citizens left who are producing.
California, the land of Barbara Boxer, Maxine Waters, Nancy Pelosi et.al is forcing the people that work there to supposedly loan the State 10% of their earnings. The people will supposedly get their money back sometime in 2010. This is tantamount to theft. How can they do this? Is it constitutional? What about the people and their bills? Does the government of CA care if the people eat, pay their rent or mortgage, pay their expenses? What about the people’s credit score, which everything is based on unjustifiably today, which will be affected if they are late paying their bills? CA is broke now, what makes you think they will be able to pay the people back? Would this so-called loan be paid back with interest, and at what rate? California already has been selling their assets, releasing prisoners and firing prison guards. The farmers are unemployed because the state will not let them have water because of a minnow.CA, I have a suggestion for you, why not do some things that will get people to work like drilling for oil off the coast; or releasing the water so the farmers can farm. People need to stand up to this tyranny.
could someone tell me what services would be provided under a conservative government? My adult son has a debilitating condition, would he have to live in a cardboard box next to the highway..? What kind of tax rate do you guys propose? Who would pay the taxes? Those big wall street bonuses… would they be taxed..? at what rate..? do you pay less taxes when Republicans are in office?
And the way you guys love those founding documents… what’s with that..? Those founding documents were written by rich lawyers and they protected slavery and the Dec of Ind even outright begged for immigrants to be brought in..? I mean… come on…
You play the victim card just like a typical liberal. You don’t mention your son’s debilitating condition and what government provided services he relies on. I don’t think you are being honest, but for a moment I will take you at your word to make a point.
No, your son wouldn’t have to live in a cardboard box next to the highway. He would live with you and you would take responsibility and fulfill your family obligation of looking after his best interests.
Low taxes would take less of your disposable income, allowing you to allocate more resources to take care of your son.
Less federal regulations of health care services would make said services cheaper, thus being less of a burden on your financially.
As for those founding documents that you despise, if they protect slavery, why was slavery abolished after the civil war? Why are you and I not slaves today?
I think the tone and anger of your post betrays you for who you really are. A left wing liberal who is hell bent on destroying the finest nation our planet has ever seen. You hate yourself and anyone you perceive as more successful than you must be cut down to your level. This is your ego’s way of protecting itself.
Eric Hoffer describes your ilk in his book, “The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements”
“Those who see their lives as spoiled and wasted crave equality and fraternity more than they do freedom. If they clamor for freedom, it is for freedom to establish equality and uniformity. The passion for equality is partly a passion for anonymity: to be one thread of the many which make up a tunic; one thread not distinguishable from the others. No one can then point us out, measure us against others and expose our inferiority.”
as far as taking care of my son at home he is schitzohrenic and he has tried to kill me and my wife… so much for keeping him home. his meds alone cost more than I make so how could I pay for them from tax savings.. to pay for them from tax saving my tax rate would have had to have been 120% of income. I don’t hate myself but I am getting close to hating you. did you want to come over and discuss my situation? I can prove no tax reduction could ever be enough to supply what my son needs unless we do negative tax rates or such… My ego protects itself by having over 120 short stories published and by raising a grandchild that makes me proud my daughters have won congressional awards and have both gotten full academic scholorships
eric holder didn’t describe me because he doesn’t know me
bye for now your friend TS
I’ll add to my own posting. My son paid Social security taxes when he worked. Those act as an insurance program. We pay and if we get injured and can’t work we get benefits. My son got an epstein barr infection and the result was voids in his brain. He can’t work. He tried. I was never more proud when he tried and ached to see that it couldn’t happen. Did you want to meet? We could meet at a restaurant and I could bring documents and prove that there are some people who need help. My wife has had both knees replaced her hands are mangled by arthritis. Did you want to meet and see that your simple idea of low taxes doesn’t always solve everything..? I can buy you lunch. (I promise not to hate myself too much while you are in the room.) just say you are willing to talk and we can meet somewhere and there you can tell me what sort of tax rate should apply to a thirty million dollar bonus paid to a guy whose company got billions from the government. I once heard Jessica Simpson would put in an appearance at weddings (1 hour) for 30,000 dollars. What tax rate do you think should apply to that..? Did you happen to read “Wired” about Belushi..? Did you know restaurants used to pay him thousand to eat his dinner there? Maybe I am just jealous that there are rich people. But if I felt they were paying their share I wouldn’t really care what else they got from life. What services will you conservatives provide for a disabled person who doesn’t have family to fall back on… anything…?
“Class envy” is such a terrible poison. It has been manipulated to such great effect by a government which claims it has a mandate to equalize everything; this same government should be absolutely ashamed for the enmity it has fostered amongst its own people. I really mean that–fostering such adversarial feelings between the citizens is a great evil. How many times have you heard the word “fair” injected in the pronouncement of this or that federal legislator or bureaucrat, as if they have the wisdom, the clairvoyance, to adjudicate “fair”.
I believe we must accept two things: that all people, while created equal under God in terms of their rights, and while therefore equal under the law, are (and will always remain) in possession of very different gifts and abilities. Secondly, we must accept that it is not the role of government to address or remedy this inequality. Bureaucracy is inflexible, arbitrary, and heavy-handed, and utterly incapable of making so many fine adjustments anyway, even if it were justifiable, which it is not. Look at the “inflation tax” which comes from inflating the currency–the guilt lies with government. Look at Social Security, from which many can anticipate a negative rate of return–black men, on average, possibly due to their shorter working lifespans, have been in this situation the longest. We should not give government a “pass” on this terrible travesty wrought on the black men–and now others, like my white 28 year old eldest son–wouldn’t they all have been better off with a chance, at least, for privatization of their pensions? Look at smaller snapshots, such as fraud (already!) in the first-time homebuyer’s credit program (the government itself acknowledged a few weeks ago $139 million paid out to ineligible people), or TBTF (“too big to fail”) bailouts–the casino-like investment scam currently going on with AIG stock, AFTER a bailout. Government cannot give to one without taking from another, since it has no wealth of its own.
Your situation sounds very difficult, and I would certainly not trivialize it. But you must be an unusually gifted person to have written so much, to have raised such industrious and academically dedicated daughters, and to have contributed in such a very meaningful way to your granddaughter’s life. Would it be better if the government stepped in and took some of your proceeds away from you, because you are adjudged to have “more than your share?” Liberty and limited Constitutional government is the only way out of this mess. Please, come into the “tea party” fold! We need your angst and your ideas!
Might I recommend a short book? “The Law” by Frederic Bastiat.
It’s not that I have class envy… I do have the little guy gets little help envy. Answer me this… who pays a bigger percent of their income in social security taxes me or Donald Trump? (good simple answer requested… no big diagrams or evasions) (Did you know the state paid for improvements to Trump’s casino?) I was once told by a social worker that it would be a waste of time to apply for a housing allowance for my son while a Republican was in office… then Obama comes along and my son now gets 124 dollars extra each month for housing and an increase in his food stamps. My fear is that the only toning down of government spending that will happen due to you Tea Party guys is the money given to the little people. How dare you call for an end to Medicare and Medicaide without first calling for an end to governments buying stadiums. Private saving for retirement was tried where would you keep your retirement money in a tin can or in a stock market that can crash if two zebras get loose near the airport (or from similar exotic and miss-understood causes)I want my retirement funds guaranteed by an agency who can print money and by politicians who can lose their jobs if I am dissatisfied. I trust our system. Tax me. Tax others. Provide for those who need help. If we can give a stadium to rich folks we can give an apple to a poor kid. You didn’t answer… what kind of help will you tea party guys give to sick people. 1.) The same as now. 2.) More help. 3.) Or nothing.