Hudgins on CSPAN-2 with Tax Day Statement

[Ed Hudgins]

Hudgins on CSPAN-2 with Tax Day Statement

Dr. Edward Hudgins, the executive director of The Atlas Society, will participate in a press conference on Monday, April 16, 2007 at the National Press Club to mark Tax Day 2007.

CSPAN-2 plans to cover the event live, starting at about 10:00am, EDT. The conference will last between an hour and an hour and a half. CSPAN will also rebroadcast the event. Check your local listings for times. Other news organizations will cover the event as well.

Hudgins will pass out to media copies of his article from the March 2007 issue of The New Individualist on "Dr. Hudgins's 12-Step Cure for Big-Government Conservativism" and will issue the following Tax Day statement:

------------

Tax Day 2007: Confronting the Candidates and Politicians

By Edward Hudgins

April 16, 2007 -- Every year it is more difficult to know what to say about the evils of our current tax system since most of it has already been said. So let's focus instead on to whom we should say it.

In April, 2007, the presidential campaigns have already begun and by Tax Day next year candidates for president and Congress will be seeking our votes. It's time to seek something from them. This is an opportunity to confront those candidates and politicians--in letters to the editor, on radio and TV call- in shows, at campaign rallies and town meetings-- and to ask them some very pointed questions:

Ask candidates and politicians, "How can you support the immoral so-called 'progressive' tax system that penalizes people with higher tax rates for their virtues, that is, for creating more wealth and making larger profits than others?

Ask candidates and politicians, "What kind of idiot's game are you perpetuating: a game in which you pick everyone's pocket in the form of taxes; redistribute everyone's wealth in a giant political free-for-all in which those with the most political power get the biggest cut of the loot; and pay out billions of our dollars to bureaucrats to administer this racket?"

Ask candidates and politicians, "How the hell can you justify taking money from the citizens of Kansas, Nebraska and Illinois to pay for road-building and welfare in California and New York, and take money from the citizens of California and New York to pay subsidies to farmers in Kansas, Nebraska and Illinois?"

Ask candidates and politicians, "How dare you pose as our benefactors because you've thrown us some handouts, which are merely the crumbs of the bread you've taken from us?"

Ask candidates and politicians, "Where in the Constitution are you given the authority for most of your spending? And don't give us the old 'general welfare clause' argument. In case you've never read it, the Constitution is a document of limited and enumerated powers and most of what you spend our money on is not in the authorized list in Article I, Section 8."

Ask candidates and politicians, "Do you plan to continue to support this callous, complicated and convoluted tax system that forces us to waste hundreds of billions of our dollars to comply with? Don't you think we have better things to do with our money than to support your incompetence?"

Ask candidates and politicians, "How do you plan to undo the damage you've done to the American character? You offer handouts like a pusher giving heroin to a child; you stoke the flames of envy, so that the crybabies you've helped create will demand more of their neighbor's wealth, all the while depriving them, through taxes, of the ability to care for themselves like proud, responsible individuals."

Fellow citizens, it's time to turn on those who have turned on us: use this tax day to recommit yourself to dogging candidates and politicians until they bring down this indefensible system.

[galtgulch]

Well said Ed.

I wish you would be more explicit about the immorality of taxation instead of just arguing that it is unConstitutional. Trouble is that according to the prevailing moral code as you know taxation is justified.

you might mention that the mere fact that some of their constituents have a NEED does not entitle them to the productive effort of hard working tax payers.

you might mention that the present Federal Budget is thirty times higher than the Federal Budget was in 1960 when it first reached 100 Billion dollars. It is now over 3000 Billion dollars.

Try not pulling your punches next time.

Thank you in all seriousness for your efforts.

galt

[Ed Hudgins]

Here's the scene at the 2007 Tax Day event at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. You can catch it on repeats on CSPAN. (Check local listings.) I was the last speaker so that they could end with a ripping rhetorical jab at the current system. I also responded to a reporter's question on the Flat Tax by emphasizing the immorality of the current system, especially so-called "progressive" taxation, which should be referred to as punitive.

[Chris Grieb]

I wanted to commend Ed's appearance with Grover Norquist and the other anti-tax groups. Appearances hopefully will lead to a recogniation of Objectivism as not just another brand of the right. I am afraid that the US maybe in the same position it was in 1932 with so much the view that Hoover was defending capialism that it took almost fifty years for capiailism to make a comeback.