Just a year after revamping the state tax code and reducing the state income tax by 0.25 percent, Republicans in the N.C. Senate want to cut taxes again, by another 0.25 percent. Gov. Pat McCrory counsels his GOP colleagues to give last year's tax cut time to determine its full impact on the state's economy and taxpayers, but the Senate leadership seems determined to cut taxes again.
Isn't a tax cut the panacea for all political, governmental and economic problems?
If a tax cut every year is the solution (whatever the problem might be), where does this strategy end? If cutting taxes is the answer, what then is the ideal level of taxation? Zero?
Staunch libertarians have asserted that nearly all government functions can be replaced by free enterprise and free, untaxed citizens. If you are concerned about crime, get together with your neighbors to hire a neighborhood police force. You'll also need to hire prosecutors, judges and prison guards. And, as U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis asserted not long ago, sanitation standards can be be eliminated; just post a notice in the restaurant that the staff is not required to wash hands after using the bathroom. "Caveat emptor!" Free citizens who do not want to contract food poisoning or worse will protect themselves, and offending restaurants will eventually go out of business.
So if lower taxes are good, and still lower taxes are even better, no taxes must be best. Coming soon to a legislative chamber near you.
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