Our Founding Fathers Are Rolling Over In Their Graves

On this most sacred day in American history, let us pause to reflect the meaning of Independence Day, and how far we have fallen since those brave men chose to stand up to the most powerful force in the world. We were taught as schoolchildren that the American Revolution was fought over "taxation without representation". This is at best, an incorrect statement. The American Revolution was fought simply over taxation.

The colonists had enjoyed nearly two centuries of taxation-free bliss. Following the French and Indian war of the mid eighteenth century, England was in debt, and tried various attempts to have the colonists pay some of the costs of their own protection. Looking at this objectively, it was not an unreasonable idea. The various taxes that England attempted to apply (Stamp Act, Sugar Act, Tea Tax, etc) would cost a colonist anywhere from a few hundred to nearly a thousand in today's dollars, depending on various estimates. Not a bad price for the protection of the greatest army and navy in the world. It did not matter. Any tax was unacceptable. In fact, while acting as America's ambassador to England in the prelude to the revolution, he was under explicit orders not to accept any proposal of American representatives in Parliament, as the Founding Fathers knew full well that they would be simply outvoted in all matters. Sound familiar?

Compare that to the ass fraking we are subjected to today, and it is a wonder that those of on the supply side of socialism have not taken up arms to once again free ourselves from tax tyranny. We readily accept the federal government taking nearly 40% of our yearly income. We then accept states taking upwards of 11% (Hawaii), and cities as much as 12.6% (New York). But wait, there's more! If you bend over now, we'll slap you with state sales taxes as high as 8.25% (California). Want more? Well, try buying gasoline, cigarettes, alcohol, electricity, natural gas, home heating oil, telephone service, cable service, satellite service and more! Yup, you guessed it; taxed to hilt. Still need more convincing? Rent a hotel, buy a meal, drive on a toll road, buy an airplane ticket - if you can think of it, we'll tax it!

Still have too much of your own money? Don't worry, we'll tax things you already own! So you bought a car and paid sales tax on it? No problem we'll hit you with a yearly excise tax to pay for road maintenance (because the tolls, income taxes and sales taxes collected for that purpose were spent on public patronage jobs and the pension plans that accompany them). Last but not least, there's the quarterly raping known as real-estate taxes. How ironic that I received my new bill yesterday, one day before Independence Day. I'm up to a mere $4256.00. When I moved to this home (December, 2003), the amount was $3,080.00. From 2004-2009, that's a 38% increase in five fiscal years. Well, at least this year they switched to scented lubricant!

Sharpen your bayonets, melt your pewter plates into musket balls, and have a happy Independence Day folks.

Ceterum , exsisto quietis Iggy!