Skeptic Project

I like paying taxes. They keep me from living in Somalia and I don't really have to do anything to protect my way of life other than pay them.

Tax protesters are stupid.

@ Edward:

He then started screaming like a maniac, talking about how "IT'S LIKE HOLDING A GUN TO SOMEONE'S HEAD AND FORCING THEM TO PAY!"

How does that differ from the mechanism to make sure people pay their mortgages or their child support? The same men with guns will show up at your doorstep if you shrug off those obligations as well.

BTW, a vast swath of the world has governments which collect taxes but also have renounced capital punishment. How do they pull that off?

Logically tax protestors should advocate the abolition of the death penalty in the U.S. Then the government can't threaten to murder people for noncompliance.

I paid less taxes for 2009 than I have at any time in the past 10 years. I also heard a statistic that the average refund is up 10% from 2008.

If the teabaggers want to run around screeching about lower taxes, that's fine by me. I actually find them entertaining at times with their idiotic signs that say stuff like "KEEP GOV'T HANDS OFF MY MEDICARE!"

I heard this statement from Ron Paul during his election campaign, and I'd like to get feedback on it. Since this place is really good at debunking, I'd like to see if Ron Paul is bullshitting us, or not.

Source: http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/Ron_Paul_Tax_Reform.htm<br /> &#39
""We have to cut spending. You can’t get rid of the income tax if you don’t get rid of some spending. But, you know, if you got rid of the income tax today you’d have about as much revenue as we had 10 years ago, and the size of government wasn’t all that bad 10 years ago. There’re sources of revenues other than the income tax. You have tariff, excise taxes, user fees, highway fees. So, so there’s still a lot of money. But the real problem is spending. But, you know, we lived a long time in this country without an income tax. Up until 1913 we didn’t have it.""&#39

From the looks of it, it seems like a good idea to abolish the income tax.

Well jiimbo, I'm not to knowledgeable about it either but as far as I know, tariffs are damaging to trade relations between countries are they not? I mean, if you have to pay extra to export and import... it sort of encourages you to just not trade with other nations. And highway fee's like toll booths? No idea what user fees would be. I don't know, income tax is probably not the fairest thing around... but I think it does more good than bad. Not to mention, is there any proof that we would still be able to sustain ourselves (as a nation) without an income tax as Ron Paul claims?

"But, you know, we lived a long time in this country without an income tax. Up until 1913 we didn’t have it."

Completely untrue.

President Lincoln instituted the first personal income tax on the federal level in 1862, fifty years before the 16th Amendment was passed.

Various states had also experimented with the idea before that time.

Ironically the same people who want to abolish the income tax also want the wages they have pay their employees to collapse.

Doesn't mean that income taxes aren't excessive and annoying, though.