Friedman on the Patriotism of Taxes

We go back and forth on Tom Friedman here at MoJoBlog, but we have to give him props for standing up for the basic civic function of paying taxes. He mentions that Sarah Palin dismissed paying taxes as "not patriotic" and has some follow up questions.

Governor Palin, if paying taxes is not considered patriotic in your neighborhood, who is going to pay for the body armor that will protect your son in Iraq? Who is going to pay for the bailout you endorsed?

And he's just getting warmed up.

Sorry, I grew up in a very middle-class family in a very middle-class suburb of Minneapolis, and my parents taught me that paying taxes, while certainly no fun, was how we paid for the police and the Army, our public universities and local schools, scientific research and Medicare for the elderly....

I can understand someone saying that the government has no business bailing out the financial system, but I can’t understand someone arguing that we should do that but not pay for it with taxes. I can understand someone saying we have no business in Iraq, but I can’t understand someone who advocates staying in Iraq until "victory" declaring that paying taxes to fund that is not patriotic.

Preach, brother! Look, here's what people like Sarah Palin do not understand, or pretend to not understand. If we could achieve our necessary public policy goals without taxing American citizens, we would obviously do it. But we can't. Taxes are the building blocks of a healthy, functioning society that protects its citizens are provides them with an opportunity for a brighter future. Conservatives argue that the American people built America into what it is. I would argue that the American people and the taxes they pay have built America. And they can rebuild America. How is that not the very definition of patriotic?

Comments

Now all we need is representation.

Posted by: jordy on 10/08/08 at 8:44 AM Respond

She said it wasn't patriotic for middle class people to pay *higher* taxes.

Biden said it was patriotic for the wealthy to pay higher taxes.

Palin's criticism off Biden was off base.

Friedman's criticism of Palin was off base.

Your praise of Friedman is off base.

Posted by: Ran Sibble on 10/08/08 at 11:14 AM Respond

Friedman, the self important blow-hard who rarely hits the main point of an issue, nailed it this time. Conservatives cannot advocate tax decreases, while lambasting increases (including ones that bring the highest earners only up to the taxation level they were in during the Reagan era) as unpatriotic, while simultaneously vowing to keep fighting two wars until victory is achieved - not to mention all the other campaign promises including mortgage relief. Running huge deficits and exponentially increasing the public debt is not conservative by my definition, nor does it show love of country.

I would argue that millions of African slaves and the forced relocation and genocide of our native peoples also were instrumental in building America into what it is today.

Posted by: Dave on 10/08/08 at 1:37 PM Respond

Confiscatory taxation is coercion of the citizens to support with their earnings, that which they may, or may not support with their hearts, and at gun-point.

Conscience is not the same thing for all. Whilst, therefor, it is a good guide for individual conduct, imposition of that conduct upon all will be an insufferable interference with everybody’s freedom of conscience.

One who uses coercion is guilty of deliberate violence. Coercion is inhuman.
Pure goals can never justify impure or violent action. They say the means are after all just means. I would say means are after all everything. As the means, so the end.

No action which is not voluntary can be called moral. Any action that is dictated by fear or by coercion of any kind ceases to be moral. Freedom of the individual is at the root of all progress.

-- Mohandas K. Gandhi --

Posted by: Mohandas K. on 10/08/08 at 1:50 PM Respond

Taxes pay for the war. What is unpatriotic is borrowing money with no intention of paying back like the neocons do. As the Governor of the state, she should know without taxes, the state could not function. She belongs in the kitchen and raising her irresponsible children. No wonder her daughter was irresponsible in getting knocked up to the bum.

McCain made a mistake to pick her as his mate. It will cost him the election. Palin is a vindictive bitch the way she used the power of her office to go after her sister's former husband. She is as mentally unstable as old John.

Posted by: SallyMay on 10/10/08 at 8:06 AM Respond