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Jewish World Review Apr. 9, 1999 /23 Nissan 5759

Cal Thomas

Cal Thomas
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The taxman cometh

(JWR) ---- (http://www.jewishworldreview.com)
PERHAPS YOU THINK THAT AS YOU settle up with the federal, state and local governments in a few days you are done with the taxman for another year. You've only just begun.

Up to 40 percent of our hard-earned income goes to government, and government spends it so inefficiently that there reportedly isn't enough left to buy the missiles we need to carry out our misguided policies in Kosovo.

That's why Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) is again proposing the Tax Limitation Amendment, which would amend the Constitution to require a two-thirds (or super) majority of both houses of Congress before any tax increase or a new tax could be approved. The amendment could be voted on as early as this week. It's time to begin starving the big government beast.

Voters at the state level love the idea of putting big government on a diet. Whenever voters at the state level get a chance to express themselves on limiting taxes, they approve by a 2-1 majority. Currently, 14 states have some form of tax-limitation measures. According to ATR President Grover Norquist 15 states are considering adopting the two-thirds Tax Limitation Amendment in 1999.

"Tax reform'' over the last 10 years has not only cost us more money but more time as we struggle with rules so complex that even the IRS gets them wrong. It is a system that just about everyone hates and no one respects. The only way to begin reform is to deprive government of additional money. The two-thirds majority would give government's greedy hand less access to our pockets except in times of real emergency.

Government is costing us more than the taxes we see. According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), federal regulations cost taxpayers $737 billion in 1998. That's 44 percent of the size of all federal spending. The typical family pays an average $7,239 of the regulatory bill, up from $6,800 in 1997. "That's 20 percent of the after-tax budget,'' notes Wayne Crews, author of the CEI report. "More is spent on regulation than on medical expenses, food, transportation, recreation, clothing or savings,'' says Crews.

Contributing to the cost are the federal agencies that have added 21,000 rules in the last five years. Currently, Congress is not held responsible for the cost of new regulations, but it should be. In order to control regulations, the CEI report suggests all members of Congress be required to vote on agencies' final rules before they become binding on the public. Otherwise, it is regulation without representation.

Consider this: the costs of regulation by the U.S. government is nearly as large as the combined GNPs of Canada and Mexico. The 1998 Federal Register contained 68,571 pages, the highest level since 1980 and a 6 percent jump over the previous year. And more regulations are coming. An estimated 4,560 new ones are in the pipeline. The top five federal rule-producing agencies last year were the Department of Transportation (518), Environmental Protection Agency (462), Department of the Treasury (438), Department of Agriculture (384) and Department of Health and Human Services (350). The total just for the top five is 2,152 new regulations in 1998.

Worse, we rarely know what benefits come from these regulations because many are not accompanied by benefit estimates. At EPA, fewer than half of its $100 million rules have known benefit estimates.

What was that about the era of big government being over?


Up

04/05/99: MEMO: MAKE LOVE AND WAR -- AND KEEP IT SIMPLE
03/30/99: Human-rights terror in China
03/25/99: Yasser Arafat:
bad cop, worse cop
03/23/99: Bubba’s multiplied lies
03/18/99: Reinventing AlGore
03/16/99:Americans get bull while China shops
03/12/99: Bill Lan Lee: Flouting the law
03/09/99: Don't worry about your child, be happy
03/08/99:The ‘lady' is a tramp
03/04/99: Proving myself to President Clinton
02/24/99: New slaves to a new slavery
02/22/99: Character-plus
02/19/99: GOP losers tell winner how to win
02/17/99: The Clinton legacy
02/10/99: More a man, less a president
02/08/99: Mr. President: Tear down this wall
02/03/99: Guess who's coming to breakfast
02/01/99: NBC gets the message;is CBS missing it?
01/25/99: Let's not make this deal
01/25/99: Gov. George Bush's 'responsibility era'
01/19/99: Prophets without honor
01/12/99: The Senate's predicament and opportunity
01/08/99: ‘Compassionate conservatism’ is redundant
01/06/99: Don't give my regards to 'Narroway'
01/04/99: In culture war, a parking space trumps sex
12/28/98: Until we've learned our lesson
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12/15/98: The 'moving finger'
12/11/98: This sorry president
12/09/98: The eclipse of principle
12/03/98: Destroying Jewry on the installment plan
12/07/98: Before the Age of Clinton
12/01/98: Apathy and ignorance
11/19/98: Ken Starr's moment of truth
11/19/98: The fall of journalism's empire
11/17/98: Republicans drift while conservatives float
11/13/98: Supreme Courtupholds freedom of school-choice
11/10/98: The revolting Republican 'revolution'
11/06/98: Hulk Hogan for president?
11/03/98: Clinton's greatest peril isn't Monica
10/30/98: Mother Teresa was right about killing
10/27/98: Clinton to Netanyahu: 'You're despicable'
10/21/98: A 'peace' agreement: Wye not?
10/19/98: Vanity Fair snubs some of the greatest women 'leaders'
10/14/98:The mean machine
10/09/98: Impeachment: an outside perspective
10/07/98: The corruption of the Secret Service
10/02/98: Land erosion in Israel
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9/18/98: The Clinton strategy and the Clinton legacy
9/18/98: Stopping him before he sins again
9/15/98: Repenting when the end is near
9/11/98: Faithfully executing: Congress vs. the President
9/10/98: The degrees of separation between Dan Burton and Bill Clinton
9/08/98: Joe Lieberman and the Democrats' conscience
9/04/98: Clinton vs. Reagan and the struggle for power
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8/31/98: Liberal clergy and the Lewinsky affair
8/27/98: Combating the terrorists among us
8/25/98: The president as 'Chicken Little'
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8/18/98: Big government's crab grab
8/14/98:Untruths, half-truths and anything but the truth
8/12/98: Lying under oath: past and present impeachable offenses
8/10/98: Endangered species
8/04/98: In search of an unstained president
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7/21/98: Telling the truth about
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7/14/98: Who cares about killing when the 'good times' are rolling?
7/10/98: George W. Bush: a different 'boomer'
7/08/98: My lunch with Roy Rogers
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6/19/98: William Perry opposed
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6/9/98: Oregon: the new killing fields
6/5/98: Speaking plainly: the cover-up continues
6/2/98: Barry Goldwater: in our hearts
5/28/98:The Speaker's insightful remarks
5/26/98: As bad as it gets
5/25/98:Union dues and don'ts
5/21/98: Connecting those Chinese campaign contribution dots
5/19/98: Clinton on the couch
5/13/98: John Ashcroft: another Jimmy Carter?
5/8/98: Terms of dismemberment
5/5/98: Clinton's tangled Webb
4/30/98: Return of the Jedi
4/28/98: Desparately seeking Susan
4/23/98: RICO's threat to free-speech and expression
4/21/98: Educating children v. preserving an institution
4/19/98: Analyzing the birth of a possible new nation
4/14/98: What's fair about our tax system?
4/10/98: CBS: 'Touched by a perv'
4/8/98: Judge Wright's wrong reasoning on sexual harassment
4/2/98: How about helping American cities before African?
3/31/98:Revenge of the children
3/29/98: The Clinton strategy: delay, deceive, deny, and destroy
3/26/98: Moralist Gary Hart
3/23/98: CNN's century of (liberal) women
3/17/98: Dandy Dan
3/15/98: An imposed 'settlement' settles nothing
3/13/98: David Brock's Turnabout

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