Don't tax you, don't tax me, ...

EBM points out that governments are turning to higher and higher traffic fines/fees to pay for basic services because of the refusal of the general public to raise taxes on themselves to pay for the services they demand from their government. What, you say there is no free lunch, that if we want to have government services we must pay for them? Heresy, heresy I say! Don't tax you, don't tax me, tax that suspicious looking feller over there behind that tree! Oh wait, no, that feller happens to own most of the politicians in town, so we can't do that, can we? Heh.

At which point the tighty righty interjects,

Here's a thought. How about we cut some spending.

Sure! So what spending do you want to cut? Spending on regulators for gulf drilling? Yeah, that worked out well. Spending for defense? Your ilk shits your tighty whities every time we suggest that, even though defense is over 50% of the federal government's discretionary budget when you add in the war spending. Spending for unemployment insurance? Uhm, these folks paid into the unemployment insurance fund for all their working lives with the promise that if they needed it, they'd get unemployment compensation while they looked for a job, your ilk sure likes breaking your promises. Shall we cut spending for children's health care insurance and watch children die? Well yeah, I know that gives tighty whities like, the biggest erections of all time, they just stroke their rods at the thought, tighty righties just *love* the thought of people dying (preferably brown people, but they'll stroke to children dying too, but *never* fetuses, fetuses are God's special little ugly monkeys).... oh I know! We'll cut Medicare! Those wrinkly old prunes ought to just have the sense to die when they get sick like they used to back before Medicare! (50% of our elders had no health insurance before Medicare was passed, and basically no access to health care if they got sick).

Or cops! We don't need police departments anyhow, because you, a pasty-ass soft white cubicle dweller, are perfectly capable of taking on vicious criminals with that .22 caliber pistol in your dresser drawer that you've never, ever fired but hey, the people on Westerns manage to do it, so how hard can it be? And fire departments, let's cut fire departments, because after all, if your house catches on fire you should have just installed a fire sprinkler system that would have put it out so if it burns down it's your own darn fault, right?! Too bad about your *neighbor's* house that burned down because there was no fire department to keep pumping water on its roof to keep the embers from your house from catching it on fire...

Or maybe... just maybe... being the OECD nation with the lowest taxes of all major economies isn't a healthy place to be? I mean, fuck. Even SOUTH KOREA and JAPAN have a higher percentage of their GDP going to taxes than the United States! How fucked up is that?!

- Badtux the Snarky Penguin