Today is the deadline for sending in our taxes to the federal government. Tax Freedom Day comes on different days depending on the state in which you live. While your federal obligation for last year may end today, your tax obligation to your state might not end until next month if you live in New York, New Jersey or Connecticut, for example.
And then of course money from this year's taxes is withheld from your paychecks and there are the never-ending taxes for Social Security and Medicare and sales and property taxes and a tax on your car in some states and taxes on the fuel and all sorts of hidden taxes.
The focus on taxes is entirely wrong. The focus ought to be on spending -- wasteful, unnecessary and over-spending. It is a familiar saying, but Ronald Reagan had it exactly right: We have a debt not because the American people are taxed too little, but because their government spends too much.
Even President Obama, who is promoting more taxes on the wealthy, acknowledges it won't put a dent in the debt. Class warfare solves nothing. Stopping the spending will.
I'm Cal Thomas.
Publication date: April 16, 2012
