Editorials and Opinion Pieces

BY: Grover Norquist, special to the Philadelphia Inquirer
DATE: January 20, 1998
SECTION: Section A; Page 13, Column 4

It is time to cut taxes at the federal and state levels. A lot.

Last year, American taxpayers worked until May 9 to pay their total tax burden. When you add the costs of federal and state regulations to the tax burden, the average American worked until July 3 to pay his or her share of the total costs of government.

We aren’t done paying on April 15. That is just the beginning. Hidden in the costs of everyday products are the taxes businesses pay: property taxes, Social Security taxes for employees, excise taxes and more. Much more. After you pay your income tax and your Social Security taxes and your property taxes you may wish to celebrate with a beer. Well, sit down: 43 percent of the cost of that beer is the cost of taxes. Switch to something harder: 72 percent of the cost of liquor is actually taxes, not the product. Settle for a Coke: fully 35 percent of the cost of a can of soft drink is taxes. Fifty four percent of your gasoline goes not to big oil companies or Arab sheiks ... but to the government in high taxes. Forty percent of the cost of an airplane ticket is taxes.

Republicans in Congress want to cut taxes. Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) has stated that every year the Republicans control Congress they will pass a tax cut. Congressmen Jerry Weller (R-Ill.) and David MacIntosh (R-Ind.) have more than 2l8 co-sponsors for their legislation to abolish the marriage penalty tax. Today, taxpayers who earn between $20,000 and $50,000 a year who marry one another end up paying as much as $l,000 more than if they had stayed single or simply not married. This is unfair and destructive.

The Republican goal is to abolish the present income tax and move to a flat tax or a retail sales tax -- either reform would simplify and lower taxes and create a system where the federal government taxes income one time at one low rate. Today, the government taxes you when you earn a dollar, again when you save it, again when you invest it, again when you buy products and when you are foolish enough to die, they tax you again. This April 15, Congress will vote on a constitutional amendment to require a 2/3 supermajority vote to ever raise taxes in the future. This protection against higher taxes is already in the state constitutions of Arizona, California, Nevada and Washington.

Here are four quick reasons to cut taxes at all levels of government. First, taxes are too high today. Federal taxes today are higher than during most of World War II. Second, the money you earn belongs to you and your family. Bill Clinton didn’t earn it. You did. Bill Clinton didn’t work on weekends or take a second job. You did. This past November there was an election for governor in Virginia where the Democrat, Don Beyer, promised to spend more on "good" things and the Republican Jim, Gilmore, promised to abolish the personal property tax on cars. President Clinton drove into Virginia and told Virginians that if they wanted to reduce their taxes they were "selfish." Hmm. You work hard and earn your paycheck. The big government politicians want to take more of your money in taxes. You object. And Bill Clinton calls you "selfish"? No. The politicians who play to the politics of envy and greed are selfish in wanting other people’s money -- namely yours. Your average street mugger is an improvement. He knows it’s your wallet. He knows you earned the money. He just wants it for himself and he is straightforward enough to say, "Give me your money, I have a knife." Muggers understand this transaction. They don’t pretend you are selfish.

The third reason to cut taxes is that if we continue to let politicians spend more than one third of our nation’s income they will hurt people with it. Since the end of World War II, government has spent more than $5 trillion on means-tested welfare spending. This is more than was spent on World War II -- and we won that war. Welfare spending is not simply expensive for working Americans who have to foot the bill. It hurts the poor. A government program that encourages someone to remain unemployed, unmarried and subsidizes illegitimate births is not being helpful. The damage liberals have done with the welfare state is visible in every major city. Since the Republicans captured Congress in November 1994 and three times passed welfare reform -- Clinton vetoed welfare reform twice and then, when the 1996 election got close, he signed the Republican reform -- the welfare rolls have dropped by more than one third.

The fourth reason to cut taxes is that lower taxes create economic growth and job creation. High taxes create stagflation and the welfare state -- witness Germany and France.

Bill Clinton knows this. When Japan’s economy faltered this past fall, Bill Clinton urged the Japanese government to cut income taxes to create jobs and growth. Americans deserve to be treated as well by their president as citizens of other countries. Even if we didn’t contribute as much to his last campaign.