{"id":28437,"date":"2012-06-30T11:18:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-30T17:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/06\/30\/the-horrifying-horror-of-the-horrifying-new-power-to-tax.html"},"modified":"2012-06-30T11:18:00","modified_gmt":"2012-06-30T17:18:00","slug":"the-horrifying-horror-of-the-horrifying-new-power-to-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/06\/30\/the-horrifying-horror-of-the-horrifying-new-power-to-tax.html","title":{"rendered":"The Horrifying Horror of the Horrifying New Power to Tax"},"content":{"rendered":"

Okay, here's something I don't get. \u00a0I understand that people dislike taxes in general (though most like the things they get for taxes, like roads and police and tanks and food that is mostly safe), and that some people vehemently dislike all taxes on principle. \u00a0So that sad …<\/p>\n

The SCOTUS decision seeing the penalty for not buying private insurance coverage as a tax seems to be drawing a hellacious amount of attention, not so much as a tax, but as some strange new power that (gasp) forces people to buy something<\/i>. \u00a0Next stop, forcing people to buy (as one Denver Post columnist put it, dismissively) a portable defibrillator, or else face a fine.<\/p>\n

What I don't understand is the difference between:<\/p>\n

a. The government taxing everyone an extra $50\/year and then delivering to their doorstep a portable defibrillator.<\/p>\n

b. The government taxing everyone an extra $50\/year and then giving everyone a coupon to go out and buy the defibrillator of their choice.<\/p>\n

c. The government requiring everyone to buy a defibrillator of their choice, and taxing (fining)\u00a0folks $50\/year for not having one and having them instead available for anyone who doesn't have one who suddenly needs one.<\/p>\n

We'll elide over the concept of a "service" vs an "asset" and just ask, how is "c" significantly different "a" or "b"? \u00a0It doesn't seem a stretch to me to see that as a reasonably similar power exercise by the government. We may argue about the end<\/i>, or the amount<\/i>, but the means<\/i> seems pretty much the same to me.<\/p>\n

Google+:<\/strong> Reshared 1<\/a> times
Google+:<\/strong> View post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Okay, here's something I don't get. \u00a0I understand that people dislike taxes in general (though most like the things they get for taxes, like roads and police and tanks and food that is mostly safe), and that some people vehemently dislike all taxes on principle. \u00a0So that sad … The SCOTUS decision seeing the penalty … Continue reading “The Horrifying Horror of the Horrifying New Power to Tax”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":33621,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/06\/internet-sales-taxes-advance.html","url_meta":{"origin":28437,"position":0},"title":"Internet sales taxes advance","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 6-May-13 8:16pm","format":false,"excerpt":"And, yeah, it's probably time. \u00a0Three notes on the article:1. Do less than $1MM in online sales a year, you're exempt. Hardly onerous on little mom-pop sales order shops.2. The provisions for states to give retailers the ability to calculate the tax and centralize tax payments makes this close to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17085,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/04\/11\/taxing-day.html","url_meta":{"origin":28437,"position":1},"title":"Taxing Day","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 11-Apr-10 9:54pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So I did my taxes today, the last weekend day before 15 April. And, if you follow along my Twitter, you know it didn't end terribly well.\u00a0 Short story, we owe a big chunk to Uncle Sam, mitigated by a small refund from the lovely state of Colorado.\u00a0 It was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/uncle_sam-greedy.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":20769,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/04\/17\/modern-tax-time.html","url_meta":{"origin":28437,"position":2},"title":"Modern tax time","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 17-Apr-11 8:38pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I can remember my dad doing the taxes. Now, Dad was a banker. He knew what was what when it came to finances, and money, and accounting, and tabulation, and record-keeping. And I can remember long weekends (and more), the dining room table covered with neat stacks of paper, colorful\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "My Computer"","block_context":{"text":"My Computer","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/my-computer"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/taxes.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/taxes.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/taxes.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":20556,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/03\/25\/david-barton-is-a-dolt-the-holy-tax-policy-of-antioch-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":28437,"position":3},"title":"David Barton is a Dolt (The Holy Tax Policy of Antioch Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 25-Mar-11 9:11pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Economics has moral implications. I believe that's so.\u00a0 I spend a fair amount of time here talking about that, in terms of how government spending and taxation policies help or hurt people, promote or discourage activities that have a moral character, etc. David Barton believes that's so, too.\u00a0 But for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dolts"","block_context":{"text":"Dolts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/dolts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28449,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/06\/30\/because-policy-is-less-important-than-taxes.html","url_meta":{"origin":28437,"position":4},"title":"Because policy is less important than TAXES!!!!!!!!!!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 30-Jun-12 2:13pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Really? The most important thing about the ACA ruling by the Supreme Court is whether it means the penalty on those who refuse to buy health insurance coverage is a \"tax\" or not? \u00a0And not because of any substantive discussion of the mechanism, or the merits of the end, or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50274,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/04\/on-the-burden-of-taxes-upon-the-wealthy.html","url_meta":{"origin":28437,"position":5},"title":"On the burden of taxes upon the wealthy","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 4-May-15 5:13am","format":false,"excerpt":"The wealthy and their politico-punditry representatives would have you believe that taxes are unfairly focused just on the wealthiest, in an anti-business, anti-success, anti-capitalist, anti-American socialist-communist plot to let the freeloaders drain the precious bodily fluids of the job-makers.But such numbers usually are focused on tax rates, which, in a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28437\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}