Taxes, Self-Reliance and Conservatism

Tax Day is here. If you did it right, you don' t owe the government anything. Regardless of your payment on the 15th, we're all paying more than our share. In fact, Americans are paying more than ever. Cost of Government Day (COGD) is the date of the calendar year on which the average American worker has earned enough gross income to pay off his or her share of spending and regulatory burdens imposed by government on the federal, state and local levels. Cost of Government Day for 2008 was July 16. Working people had to toil on average 197 days out of the year just to meet all costs imposed by government. In other words, the cost of government consumed 53.9 percent of national income. Wait, it gets worse. The 2008 tax code was part of the "lower taxes" administration. You don't think the present administration is going to reduce the cost of government do you? Steve Forbes - where are you when we need you?

Friedrich Hayek's economic ideas - belief in smaller government, lower taxes and free markets - are the roots from which fiscal conservatives bloom. The concept is so remarkably simple. Reduce the tax burden on producers and watch how revenues to governments grow. It is not a mathematical theory or postulate. It is something for which the "null hypothesis" has been eliminated(researchers rejoice). I met with an executive of the NC Chamber of Commerce today and was disappointed, but not surprised, by the rapidly increasing cost of doing business in The Old North State. We are making ourselves less attractive to private businesses every time we allow the trial lawyers and unions to drive up the costs of doing business here. As the CEO of a private company that filed tax returns in over 40 states today, I can tell you it doesn't take long to tell which states are business-friendly and which states are taking the short-term approach to increasing revenues. In the Tarheel State, we need get back to our conservative roots - work, family, self-reliance, enterprise, personal responsibility...and a welcoming spirit - driven by a lower cost of living and a pro-business environment. If we don't reverse this course soon, we'll be known as the Garden State South...and not just because of all the NJ students at Duke!

We need to be diligent about not getting lulled into thinking that all of these fees and taxes (federal, state and local) are necessary to improve our lives or the lives of lower-income people. We have enough data over 235 years to know that more money does not correlate to better results when the bureaucracy of government collects and redistributes. I am a conservative because I reject that concept. I choose to take an optimistic view that all of us, given the opportunity, can build our own wealth by actively participating in capitalism. I reject the "one-size-fits-all" model of government and place my trust in each individual to make decisions about the services they receive. Citizens need the freedom to self-govern. The opposite of self-governance is dependence. Dependence is the absence of freedom. Freedom is what beats in the heart of every human.