Death and taxes, two of life’s certainties

I knew it. You knew it. Apparently the Supreme Court and the Solicitor General for the administration knew it, it’s a tax. As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, the penalty for not buying health insurance is going to be a...umm...penalty, collected by the IRS when you pay your yearly income penalty.

The issues of sophistry and parsing of words will be well-covered by conservative pundits composing their “Dear John” letters to Chief Justice Roberts. For the moment I’d like to concentrate on what has their collective silk boxers in a bunch — the “T” word.

As most politicians (at least the successful ones) know, you don’t win too many votes by promising to raise taxes. Of course, candidates will tell you they want to improve roads, and schools, and bolster the police and fire departments, but for heaven sake, not at the expense of the taxpayer. This particular political hocus-pocus is accomplished by growing the economy (usually by reducing taxes), eliminating waste, and singing several choruses of “You’re a Grand Old Flag”.

Giving money to bureaucrats to, gasp, redistribute wealth just seems somehow un-American. Of course, the result of not redistributing our collective wealth would be toll roads, private schools, and subscription fees for fire and police protection. All these things exist now and could be universal if it weren’t for the freedom hating civil servants blocking its implementation from seashore to privately owned seashore.

Taxes are life support for governments, and I don’t expect Washington, D.C., is going to pull that plug any time soon. So as the old saying goes, one of the two certainties in life is taxation. And while the other certainty is grimmer it at least results in tax relief.

OK, so now what? It seems those craven politicians in D.C. have figured out a way to sneak in a tax without calling it a tax, and everyone knows taxes are evil and unpatriotic. Of course, the illogical extension of that argument is crippling debt, faltering schools, and a crumbling infrastructure are somehow patriotic and must therefore be good for the country.

We have painted ourselves into an ideological corner. We want to remain the nation that is capable of great things. We want to continue to be the envy of the world for our innovation and character. We just don’t want to pay for it.

Grover Norquist, a private citizen and anti-tax activist has penned a no tax pledge that has been signed by 539 incumbent lawmakers and candidates. This pledge essential says that the signer will under no circumstances create a new tax, increase an existing tax, speak, write, or even think the word tax. Whatever the needs of the country, this pledge shall be honored under penalty of severe glowering from their anti-tax brethren. Along with death and taxes I’d like to include another inevitability in life: You get what you pay for. The pledge-signing apostles of Mr. Norquist seem to have forgotten this truism.

So if taxes are certain, perhaps we should take a more realistic view of them. We live in societies. Our common goals unite us as a society. One of the most basic goals of any society is the safety and well being of its members. Without that, any society will quickly self-destruct. We also have decided that roads, schools, public safety, and national defense are things that we should invest in. We do that by paying taxes. Short of personally feeding, clothing and housing everyone in need, we have decided as a society to work collectively to accomplish that end.

Yes, this is redistribution of wealth. Yes, some will get more than they put in. Yes, this is government intruding into your personal affairs. No, this is not Communism, the death of freedom, or the end of civilization. This is our collective will being exercised in the public arena. Far from impeding civilization, taxes are one of its cornerstones and reflect the values of a society. Taxes are, in fact, the dues you pay to participate in the benefits of society. Things like roads we can all travel, universal education, police and fire protection for all are not possible without all of us kicking in a share.

Along with roads, education, and public safety, we are now asking ourselves if access to health care for all is one of our responsibilities. If it is, we have to figure out a way to pay for it. That will inevitability involve fees, dues, tolls, you know — taxes. In the current Norquist tainted atmosphere, taxes are not an option. Penalties and fines perhaps, but never taxes. So politicians have to resort to verbal slight of hand. This is no longer a tax, it’s a penalty. And you’re not paying a penalty, you’re just getting a smaller income tax refund. It walks like a pit bull and growls like a pit bull, but apparently it’s a St. Bernard. These semantic gymnastics are the result of politicians not wanting to offend the fragile sensibilities of the voters.

On the other hand, if the health and well-being of our neighbors is not our responsibility, then it’s business as usual. Of course, in this case, “business as usual” means paying the highest pre-capita cost in the industrialized world in exchange for a relative low life expectancy and relative high infant mortality.

We have put our representatives in the position of providing all the stuff we want from society but haven’t given them the means to pay the tab. Isn’t it about time we start paying our own way and end this collective tantrum over taxes?

Don’t get me wrong. Paying taxes is not one of my favorite things, but taxes are necessary and inevitable and learning to live with the inevitable is, well, inevitable. Unless you live in a bunker on a deserted island, another inevitability is that you will have an effect on other living creatures. What the effect will be is up to us, but one thing is certain.

Positive or negative, taxed or not, we will be paying for that effect. It’s as inevitable as death and taxes.

Chuck Legge is a freelance political cartoonist who lives in Sutton. His political cartoons, “The World According to Chuck,” are printed in the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman and other newspapers around the state and nation.