Monday, July 28, 2003


COLUMN: Vin Suprynowicz
Tinkering with the ballot

...Have taxes ever killed anyone? Heck, yes. People die in gun fights with revenue officers quite frequently. All kinds of folks commit suicide after the failure of businesses that might have prospered without the ever-increasing tax burden -- especially when the tax men then come after them again.

The fact that "60 Minutes" rarely does "trend pieces" on the huge social and economic cost of taxes doesn't mean they're not out there. Children come home to empty houses because mom is out working just to pay the taxes on dad's paycheck. Bumping up cigarette and liquor taxes makes it more profitable for bootleggers to haul in truckloads of untaxed goods. Police officers then risk their lives infiltrating those smuggling rings. ...