Raymond Pitcairn
What was old is new again! Adjust those numbers UPWARD, throw in a trillion or so in stimulus, and this could be printed in today’s papers, along with the cartoons below.
There’s No Free Ride on Taxes
By RAYMOND PITCAIRN
National Chairman
Sentinels of the Republic
Probably the most common of all political promises is that which pledges the average worker a free ride on taxes paid by somebody else.
It has been made by many candidates and many office-holders. It is being made today, and will continue to be made as campaign oratory waxes warmer during the months just ahead. And this in spite of the fact that the burden of hidden taxes — the taxes ostensibly levied on production and passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices — continues steadily to mount.
Here are some figures on that rising curve recently published at Washington:
In 1932, the total of hidden Federal taxes amounted to $780,703,659 — approximately $25 per family.
In 1933, it rose to $1,085,901,635 — about $35 per family.
In 1934, it stood at $1,992,051,345 — over $53 per family.
In 1935, it reached $2,232,402,340 — almost $70 per family.
The figures exclude State and local taxes, which, if added in, would boost the count far higher. Statisticians have estimated the entire bill at from $200 to $300 per family.
These costs aren’t written down and sent to you by the Government in a separate bill. But you’re charged for them just the same. They appear in other bills — bills for food, for clothing, for shelter, for virtually everything you buy. With other expenses they are included in the cost of production, and thus billed ultimately, though indirectly, to the consumer. Every new extravagance in government, every new tax levied to support extravagance, boosts that bill — and with it the cost of living.
If the American people want to cut their living costs they must begin by cutting the high cost of government. And the way to do it is to insist that politicians exercise real economy, instead of attempting to fool us with the old, old promise that somebody else will pay the fare.
There’s no free ride on taxes.
Indiana Weekly Messenger (Indiana, Pennsylvania) Aug 13, 1936
About the Sentinels of the Republic; this is from Wikipedia:
The founding principles of the Sentinels were:
“To maintain the fundamental principles of the American Constitution.”
“To oppose further Federal encroachment upon the reserved rights of the States.”
“To stop the growth of socialism.”
“To prevent the concentration of power in Washington through the multiplication of administrative bureaus under a perverted interpretation of the general welfare clause.”
To help preserve a free republican form of Government in the United States.”
On the same newspaper page as the No Free Ride on Taxes article, were the following political cartoons:
In case you can’t read the smaller print, it says,
“We thought we wouldn’t have to pay for this!”
“Who said nobody could shoot Santa Claus?”
Like I said, What was old is new again.
