The IRS

"If duties are too high, they lessen the consumption; the
collection is eluded; and the product to the treasury is not
so great as when they are confined within proper and moderate
bounds. This forms a complete barrier against any material
oppression of the citizens by taxes of this class, and is itself
a natural limitation of the power of imposing them."

-- Alexander Hamilton (Federalist No. 21, 1787)

“An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy; because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation.” — John Marshall

Luckily the beautiful weather this week helped lessen the depth of disgust on IRS day. Republican or Democrat, our pork-barrel politicians never tire of dreaming up new ways to spend our money. Taxes are necessary, I'll grant you that, but the extent of taxation, known and hidden, is growing more burdensome by the day. Depending on how many liberals we send to the Congress and the president we elect, we could very well see the largest tax increase in the history of our country simply by letting the Bush tax cuts expire in 2010. Toss in the price of oil and spiraling food costs and you've got a remedy for a worldwide economic decline.

Here's a story that I think illustrates the danger that lies ahead:

There was a chemistry professor in a large college that had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab, the Prof noticed one young man, an exchange student, who kept rubbing his back and stretching as if his back hurt. The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist regime.

In the midst of his story, he looked at the professor and asked a strange question.

He asked: "Do you know how to catch wild pigs?"

The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said that it was no joke.

"You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side . The pigs, which are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat that free corn again. You then slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd.

Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn . They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity."

The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening in America . The government keeps pushing us toward Communism/Socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tax cuts, tax exemptions, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, etc. while we continually lose our freedoms, just a little at a time.

One should always remember two truths:

1) There is no such thing as a free lunch

2) You can never hire someone to provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself

If you see that all of this wonderful government 'help' is a problem confronting the future of democracy in America, you and I share a similar vision. If you think the free ride is essential to your way of life, then you will probably vote Democrat with joy.

But God help you when the gate slams shut! Many thanks to my friend Craig in Texas for sending that story along.