Taxation Without Representation...Not Quite

The taxation argument in the United States has existed since the founding of our nation, being one of the main reasons for our independence. The brave revolutionaries of the United States proclaimed that the British were taxing the colonists without American representation in Parliament. This unjust taxation persisted in the United States prior to the Revolutionary War and the controversy culminated in the Boston Tea Party, the signal of rejection to taxation on tea imports. Two years later, without agreement between the two opponents, war broke out and lasted for eight years. The colonists were the victors and gained our freedom as a nation. The right to taxation was brought into the hands of the American government and still continues to be a main source of debate today.

American sentiment towards taxation has been very negative in recent time, as most people prefer low taxes and little government intervention. Once again, people proclaim that they want "the government off their backs" without considering the significance and benefits of taxation. Surely taxation can be burdensome to low-income families who need to insure the basic necessities of life, but that argument can be addressed in a more complex discussion of the method of American taxation. However, taxation can be looked upon in a positive light, that which benefits individuals and the society as whole.

First of all, taxation is defined as the act of charging "a sum of money demanded by a government for its support or for specific facilities or services, levied upon incomes, property, sales, etc" (Dictionary.com). So, in other words, tax can be referred to as a fee paid by the people for some sort of benefit. Many people assume that they are not receiving anything in return when they look at their paycheck and see the money lost due to taxes. Now, let's consider the government a type of business. Ideally, this business will help the customer in providing goods/services such as Medicare, Social Security, public works, public education, assistance towards the environment, etc. However, this business is not attempting to make profit at any cost. The main goal of this business is to serve the people to the best of its ability in order to insure the well being of society. Thus, the American public benefits greatly from taxation when it is employed properly with good intention. Taxation should be increased to help Americans in more aspects of expensive consumerism such as health care, college tuition, and home necessities. Idealistically speaking, the government can decrease the cost of living and stimulate the economy from the bottom. Nevertheless, an ideal situation does not always occur and wasteful spending can cause great disruption.

In this new millennium, American tax dollars have been wasted upon a defense budget that promotes America as the police force of the world. Funding for the disastrous Iraq war has caused necessary tax dollars to go to an unnecessary war. Now, one can see the reason for the negativity towards taxation. However, one cannot make a generalization that all taxation is terrible due to a period of wastefulness and free spending. In the past, the conservatives have attacked the liberals for overspending. However, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush have run the biggest deficits in American history leading to great national debt. Robert Freeman discusses the failure of the Reagan Administration by saying, "Yearly deficits, of course, add up to national debt. When Reagan took office, the national debt stood at $994 billion. When Bush left office, it had reached $4.3 trillion. In other words, the national debt had taken 200 years to reach $1 trillion. Reagan's Supply Side experiment quadrupled it in the next 12 years." In the method of taxation via Supply Side economics, Reagan wasted the tax dollars on a military budget in attempt to defeat the very weak cause of communism throughout the world. George W. Bush has followed in Reagan's footsteps with a big military budget which has caused the inability to pursue domestic programs with American tax dollars.

In looking at the forecast for the 2008 election, the Democratic candidates are going to have a very hard time pursuing their goal of universal health care with the skyrocketing deficit. America will need to leave this war as soon as possible to reel in the wasteful spending of the Bush administration. However, it seems like universal health care will have to go on the backburner considering the approaching recession, the sub prime mortgage crisis, and the rising costs of food and energy. Nevertheless, before the presidential election in November, think about what type of "business" will provide you with the best goods at the cheapest prices. And please, don't say Wal-Mart!