Single folks, this is for you
Senator Paul Coverdell, a Senator from Georgia, is proposing legislation that allows those with children to set aside money so that they can send their children to private school. He wants a tax exemption for the interest earned on the savings accounts used to accumulate this money.
Those of you who know me know that I believe in the abolition of the government monopoly on education. Oh, I know, it is not in the strictest sense a monopoly. Parents can send Jason and Jennifer to any school they want. But let's be practical here: the parent who wants a non-government education for their child pays twice for schooling. Most working stiffs just don't have enough left after the local enforcers take their cut of his and her income. (The fact that those of us who are childless also pay for schools is another story).
Well, here we go again, fellow singles. BOHICA.
We should be asking the esteemed Senator "Where the heck is MY tax break? Do you really care about the kids and their parents, or is this just another wealth transfer scheme to buy you some votes?"
Coverdell and his fellow politicians in Washington CU* have been working overtime proposing all manner of legislation "for the chilllldren" (said in the best televangalist pronunciation).
A tax exemption subsidizing reproduction at $500 per child per year.
More and more gun confiscation and regulation schemes to disarm the law abiding.
Control and harassment of an industry that markets a legal product that taxpayers are compelled to subsidize.
All these new laws, controls, and circumscriptions of civil liberties are passed, so we are told, for the chilllldren. The politicians say this because few of them have the guts to just stand up and say "this is how I, your elected official, expect you to lead your lives". They use children as justification for their unconstitutional legislation like a coward uses a hostage as a shield.
In this case it is another excuse to dig further into your pockets to provide another "entitlement".
You younger single folks are still getting settled into adulthood. You might want to take some night classes at the local community college. You might want to aim for a degree via correspondence. Don't you think the esteemed Senator from the Peach State should buy your vote too? At my age, I might want to consider a Masters Degree. Where's MY piece, Senator?
If he give you a tax break now while you increase your level of education and your earning power goes up, then Coverdell and his friends would have a higher income level to tax. This would let them do so many more useful things like give themselves pay raises, build $33,000 outhouses in national parks, or buy water projects so farmers can grow rice and cotton in a semi-desert.
My solution is to wipe out all this nonsense they stack onto the 14,000-page tax code year after year. If we are going to be taxed at all, then repeal the 16th Amendment. Get rid of withholding. Then, when you write that once a year flat tax check you will realize just how much is being taken from you. Or when the lady at the cash register at Target adds 17 or 22 percent to your bill, you will see (and pay!) that huge lump of cash sprout wings and fly all at once. The bright side of this would be that the lady behind you with the kid in the shopping cart will be no better off tax-wise than you are. And there is no reason she should be in the first place.
* Washington CU: Center of the Universe
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