The Birds and Bees and Politics

 Krayton Kerns
6.4.08

“You’re not going to believe this,” my buddy explained. 

He was right, I didn’t believe him. 

“Yup, my cousin from Miles City showed me a picture book and that is where babies come from,” he continued. 

It was a warm summer evening and I was a skinny freckle faced ten year-old sitting on the roof of my tree house enjoying a cold bottle of Orange Crush.  News of the “birds and the bees” was the most amazing thing I had ever heard and the normal organization of my universe was turned upside down.  (Granted, the universe of a ten year-old boy isn’t exactly organized.)  I pondered that shocking information for days. 

Here is some political news you may find equally shocking.   Since ’08 is an election year you will be bombarded with politicians promising to give you free stuff.  It will sound so rosy.  It is a simple trick politicians use to spend their way into office, but exactly who gets stuck paying the bill?  The answer may surprise you. 

In fiscal year 2007, the Montana general fund collected taxes and fees from 34 different revenue categories.  Let’s look at the top five money generators as a percent of the general fund:

5)      Oil Severance Tax………………………….5.25%

4)      Vehicle Tax………………………………...6.34%

3)      Corporation Tax…………………………....9.67%

2)      Property Tax……………………………...10.40%

                       And the number one revenue source is…

1)      Montana Individual Income Tax………45.04% 

Read that again. Yup, that’s right; the number one bill payer for all the free programs Montana politicians use to buy your vote is…you.  You that work at Jan’s IGA, Cenex, Wood’s Power Grip, MRL, and Beartooth Veterinary Service; you pay for it all!

 Do you need more shocking “birds and the bees” news?  At the national level, it gets even worse.  Federal individual income tax is the number one source of revenue to the federal government at 56%.  If you add in revenue from the employment taxes of Social Security and Medicare, that percent jumps to 94%.  The wage earner carries nearly the entire load. 

Worse yet, here is another shocking percentage:  Only 44% of the US population actually pays federal income taxes; 56% of the population does not.  Now do you see why politicians advocate free program after free program…they are chumming the majority?  That is how they get elected, and that is why every world democracy has failed. 

So why am I telling you this?  I guess I am not a very good politician.  Rather than quietly taking tax money from the 44% minority and loudly giving “free stuff” to the 56% majority, I am trying to stop this madness.  It is not an easy task, but aren’t you taxpayers tired of pulling the wagon loaded with non-taxpayers enjoying the fruits of your labor?  I am.  

Tax-and-spenders have a different perspective and will claim the problem lies with insufficient taxes levied on small groups of people hidden in that 56% non-tax paying majority.  They will push for new taxes that target smokers, drinkers, and people who emit carbon dioxide.  They are wrong; we don’t have a revenue problem, they have a spending problem. Greater freedom will only come through lower taxes and smaller government.