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Can we please put away the race card?
Every time the media reports on a Tea Party event, the protesters involved are invariably cast as fringe right-wing racist rednecks. Yesterday I attended my third Tea Party rally, at the Indiana State Capitol building, and all I saw were peace-loving American patriots who were concerned for the future of our country.
Granted, there may be a few loony-tunes on the far-far fringe right who have some racial issues concerning our president. Such people will always be around, unfortunately. But to paint the Tea Party Movement as some kind of racist backlash against our first black president is a cheap political shot. More importantly, it is false.
There are millions of everyday Americans, people just like you and me, who may have never before been politically engaged. We went to work, raised our families, paid our taxes, and probably took for granted the liberty and prosperity we have enjoyed as American citizens -- that is, until the socialist wing of the Democratic Party took over this country in 2008.
We are riled up now -- and we have learned, the hard way, that our liberties cannot (and should not) be taken for granted any longer. This has nothing to do with the ethnicity of the man in the White House. It has everything to do with the agenda being advanced by a one-party government with a promiscuous lust for power, and a condescending disregard for our Constitution and the rule of law.
What alarms me, and millions of other freedom-loving Americans, is the explosive expansion of government control over our daily lives, and the reckless government spending that threatens to bankrupt us.
If the fact that the new "health care reform" legislation will require hiring 16,000 additional IRS agents doesn't disturb you, I would suggest you stay away from sharp objects and moving machinery, because you are seriously lacking in situational awareness.
For every problem that faces this country, the Democratic Party's solution is always the same: more government control, bigger government bureaucracies, and of course, higher taxation to pay for it all.
Please don't dismiss this as partisan hyperbole. Can you give me a single example of anything Barack Obama has proposed that did NOT involve growing government and spending more money? I'm waiting...still waiting...ho hum...still waiting...that's what I thought...let's move on.
To be fair, the Republican Party has also failed us in many ways over the past decade. The best thing that can be said about too many of the Republican politicians is that they were the slightly lesser of two evils on election day.
For some reason, we never seem to learn the lessons of history. Without exception, throughout the ages, unrestrained government power has always brought corruption, oppression, and eventual tyranny.
The only way to safeguard our liberties, and our children's future, is to keep our government as small as possible -- and for us, as citizens, to live self-reliant lives without expecting government hand-outs. That's what adults do. It's called being a grown-up. It's also called being responsible for yourself, and it is a prerequisite to living as a free citizen in a democratic republic.
You will never be truly free if you are depending on someone else for your needs -- especially if that someone else is your government.
I have great hopes for this country, because I believe that the common sense of average Americans will rise to the challenges of these times. The masses are now awakened to the gravity of our nation's situation.
We now realize this country needs to change course. We know that we need to elect political leaders who believe in the common sense principles that made America the world's bastion of freedom and opportunity.
One of two things will happen over the next few years. We will get control of ourselves and shrink our government back down to it's proper dimensions -- OR -- we will succumb to the suffocating embrace of a socialist state that has become too big for us to restrain, and it will continue to grow until it completely consumes our liberties and our sustenance.
"If you drive a car, I'll tax the street.
If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat.
If it gets too cold, I'll tax the heat.
If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet."
-- from the song Taxman, by George Harrison
Since this is April 15th, it means I finally finished getting my taxes filed two days ago. I was early this year.
I hate to whine, but I could not help noticing that some genius at the Indiana Department of Revenue thought it would be a good idea to increase the sheets of paper required to file my state taxes from two to six. Way to go green!
My pet peeve for today, though, concerns Schedule 4 of the Indiana tax form, which deals with "Use tax on out-of-state purchases," which we will henceforth refer to as UTOOOSP.
Indiana's sales tax rate has, over time, crept its way up to 7%. Every retail merchant in Indiana works as an unpaid tax collector every time they sell you something. Whatever you purchase in Indiana, from an Indiana merchant, automatically kicks back 7% to the state.
This is quite a tidy sum of revenue, but apparently not enough. Not satisfied with skimming 7% off the top on your in-state purchases, Indiana also has UTOOOSP.
What gives Indiana the right to tax a transaction that takes place in another state? Good question! Nonetheless, that is the law. Welcome to the world of UTOOOSP.
On page 22 of the IT-40 instructions booklet it states:
Schedule 4: Other Taxes
Line 1 – Use tax on out-of-state purchases
If you have purchased items while you were outside Indiana, through the mail (for instance, by catalog or offer through the mail), through radio or television advertising and/or over the Internet, these purchases may be subject to Indiana sales and use tax, if sales tax was not paid at the time of purchase. This tax, called “use” tax, is figured at 7 percent.
When you make purchases from a company in Indiana, that company is responsible for collecting the Indiana sales tax from you. When youmake purchases from an out-of-state company, you are responsible for making sure the use tax is paid. Either the out-of-state company collects the tax from you, or you must pay the tax directly to the State of Indiana.
Complete the worksheet on page 23 to figure your tax. If you paid sales tax to the state where the item was originally purchased, you are allowed a credit against your Indiana use tax for an amount paid up to 7 percent.
The accompanying worksheet is most helpful. It suggest some of the things you are invited to pay UTOOOSP on. Perhaps you bought a magazine subscription? Did you make any out-of-state mail order purchases? Have you purchased anything over the internet? Then you owe some UTOOOSP to the Indiana Department of Revenue.
But that just scratches the surface. We should all be doing a lot better job of tracking our UTOOOSP, lest we cause the state of Indiana to plummet into insolvency.
Remember that trip to Cincinnati last fall for Aunt Gertrude's 90th birthday party? Remember how you stopped for gas after you crossed the state line? And after picking up a couple of Cherry Cokes and some Moon Pies for the kids, you owed the clerk at the gas/convenience store $42.87? You think you are done with that transaction just because the clerk collected Ohio's 6.5% sales tax (5.5% state and 1.0% county) on that purchase?
Think again, you derelict scofflaw!
According to the IT-40 worksheet, you owe some UTOOOSP to Indiana. Since you only ponied up 6.5% to Ohio, Indiana wants that other 0.5%, and they want it now! By law, you are expected to save that receipt, calculate the difference between the Ohio tax and our Indiana tax, and remember to pay your UTOOOSP for what you spent on that trip to Aunt Gertrude's.
You will have spent all that time and energy to remember to pay Indiana an additional 21 cents in UTOOOSP.
If you travel much at all, you cannot help but be on the FBI's Most Wanted UTOOOSP list. Who in their right mind can keep track of such minutiae?
Just how much time does our state legislature think the average taxpayer has to waste? It's laws like UTOOOSP that give our otherwise esteemed Indiana General Assembly a bad reputation.
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Can we please put away the race card?
For every problem that faces this country, the Democratic Party's solution is always the same: more government control, bigger government bureaucracies, and of course, higher taxation to pay for it all.
