We hear about this right and that, about the needs of the many that can only be solved through government spending. We elect politicians whose stated goal s to pass new laws and new spending initiatives for our benefit. But do we ever question where the money comes from that our government spends?
Let’s take the example of tariffs, although we could just as easily substitute taxes or fees. Let’s ask who really pays the tariffs our government is imposing on imports.
First, corporations don’t pay tariffs. They pass them on to customers in the form of higher prices.
Second, consumers pay the tariffs.
Third, all of the tariffs imposed on domestic imports are paid by American consumers.
Fourth, therefore tariffs are just another tax on American citizens.
Finally, all tariffs, taxes and fees are taken from the person who earned it and transferred to our government. Every dollar our politicians spend is a dollar taken from the private citizen and voter.
“Customs duties had been the federal government’s fastest-growing source of revenue through 2025, driven by a rash of new tariffs imposed by President Trump, including IEEPA (International Emergency Economic Powers Act) tariffs that accounted for roughly half of collections“ August 3, 20264 min read
By: Guy Cardwell, Erica York, The Tax Foundatiin
The Republican Party of my youth would recoil at the current philosophy of more taxation, more spending and more government intervention in our lives. Yet that is exactly what most politicians have done. Is there a difference between Democrats and Republicans in this tax and spend mentality?
Ok, maybe a few more R’s object to tax and spend, but not the majority. While the R’s stumble in confusion, the D’s are going socialist and communist. What happened to the center, the moderate, the independent spirit of our fore-bearers? The ones that said leave us alone, we will take care of our own. We don’t need your federal hands in our pockets and we don’t need another law, rule or regulation.
Here is another maxim: All federal revenue is taken from the private sector, from private citizens. Every penny taken through taxes, fees or tariffs comes out of the pocket of citizens. Even the debt our government incurs is paid for by the citizen. Government is not capable of making money, they subsist by taking.
All federal income generation (taxes, fees, tariffs or debt) is used by members of the federal government (politicians and bureaucrats) to facilitate government spending. Just how effective has that spending been?
We citizens have three rights, and only three: Life, Liberty and Ownership of property. All tax, fees and tariffs take from the earner and funneled into a highly inefficient government bureaucracy. Is this not an impingement on our inalienable right to Ownership?
Since when does a bureaucrat know better what to do with money you earned through your own labor? Yet that is what we do every time a politician increases government revenue through spending.
Here is another maxim: Every law, rule and regulation is control over the individual by his government. How ironic is it that our government takes (tax, fees, tariffs) from us in order to control us (laws, rules, regulation). And we let them.
There is no right for one person or entity to impose their will on another. We all have the right to Liberty, to free will, to our own choice. When the majority creates a new law, impose a new tax on the minority, the individual, that action is wrong.
Are not all laws, rules and regulations imposed after our Constitution an affront to our inalienable right to Liberty? Why then, do we not demand that our elected officials not only stop making new laws, but actually reduce the number of laws, rules and regulation?
This not a cry for anarchy, quite the opposite, this is a plea to adhere to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. We are all independent and sovereign beings endowed by our creator will three inalienable rights. It is time for less government and more individual freedom, liberty.
Jay Davidson is founder and CEO of a commercial bank, a student of the Austrian School of Economics and a dedicated capitalist. There is a direct connection between individual right and responsibility, our Constitution, capitalism, and the intent of our Creator.