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America had a better system of government 100 years ago than it does today, and more importantly, a SMALLER government. If a person does a comparison, you might come to a quick conclusion that I'm right.
A century ago we did not have the federal income tax. Before 1913, Americans were free of the grips of the IRS that steals trillions of dollars from productive, hardworking American families, and re-distributes the wealth to thousands of social programs billions in foreign aid. A century ago, the United States had ZERO national debt, now estimated at almost $3 trillion over the next 10 years.
America used to have the largest middle class in the world and Moms could afford to stay at home and raise the kids. A century ago, government funded public schools began to eat away at the highly successful private K-12 system that had standards equivalent to today's universities.
America in 2004 is a bountiful land with many technological marvels making our lives the best ever. Think how much better it would be if government did not interfere as much as it has over the last 100 years with horrendous taxation, thousands of laws, rules, regulations and controls that restrict free enterprise and suppress people's creativity and ingenuity.
Western states like Oregon, Washington, California and Alaska all are running huge deficits, because politicians can't control their voracious spending appetites. Congress, the leader of this mess, is even worse. Led by the President, they have out spent every past administration in the history of the U.S. and are pushing us toward bankruptcy.
2004 could have looked like what 2075 probably will. We would likely be much more advanced as a society if it weren't for government interference. We probably would have a cure for cancer, colonized the planet Mars, human bodies that routinely live healthy well beyond 100 years, and a standard of living for everyone quadruple of what it currently is.
The biggest problem over the last 100 years has been taxes. Unbelievably, there are nearly 50 taxes most Americans pay, making them much poorer at the expense of a big and wasteful government, including income, sales, capital gains, unemployment, gas, property, Social Security and many others.
Not a single one of these 50 taxes existed 100 years ago. Yet our nation was the most prosperous in the world.
Closer to home, look at what's happening right here in Alaska. It's obvious we haven't learned from mistakes of the past, and unfortunately seem destined to repeat them. Last session, the Governor signed into law a host of new taxes, and called them "user fees," including car rental, tire, business license and vehicle registration taxes.
This is not the end of it. This session, the same crowd is trying to include and income tax, a sales tax, tobacco tax and tourism tax.
These measures will slow the progress of our state and society by discouraging productivity, creativity and entrepreneurship. The real beneficiaries will be government bureaucrats and special interest groups, who will be handed money stolen from the public through the force of law.
Further, history has proven repeatedly that you can't tax yourself into prosperity. The opposite occurs when taxes are CUT, proven in the early 1960's and early 1980's when our national economy boomed.
If cutting taxes advances commerce, then why not cut taxes for everyone involved? Why can't politicians see the principle involved here?
This is Representative Vic Kohring, serving Wasilla and the Mat-Su Valley.
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