On Taxes

Grover Norquist was recently on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews and affirmed that he is holding the line on no new tax hikes to increase revenues. No matter what, he doesn't want the United States Federal government to increase taxes, despite the fact that they are at an all-time low (since the 1930s).

Norquist's "Pledge" is useful, from the standpoint of clarifying how taking a stand does not work in government.

I was talking with a friend of mine recently who told me that he wants our government to be run more like a corporation or a company. And I really like my friend but I told him that he was absolutely never going to get any government by wanting one run like a company. Because here's what happens in a company:

The CEO makes a decision. the Board votes to implement it, all managers toe the line and everyone in the company starts to produce what the CEO told them to produce. If the company is lucky and the CEO is making good decisions, the company prospers and the shareholders all get paid.

But our country works on the basis of varying opinions. You may wish we had larger highways, while my priorities are for more trees and lakes. I may want your highways to go around my trees and lakes, while you may see that the best way to get from Point A to Point B is a straight line. If we're run like a company, the CEO decides and we don't get a say in the matter. If we're run like a government, we may be able to compromise. I get some of my lakes and trees, you get a straighter road than you might have gotten if I had my way.

Norquist is having none of that.

He wants his straight highway and, "to heck with the consequences." Problem is, he's somehow influencing a lot of politicians who are, unfortunately, very happy to paint themselves into a corner. And here is why I have a problem with Mr. Norquist: He was never elected by the people. He is basically saying that he is going to run the United States government by holding politicians to a "pledge," as if it were more important than the Constitution of the United States, national defense, or the Fair Faith and Credit of our country.

Again, I remind you, dear reader, Mr. Norquist does not hold any elective office. He has never held any elective office.

Here's what taxes really are, despite what Mr. Norquist would have you believe.

We all pool our money to provide something for ourselves that we, individually cannot afford. I cannot build a road. Don't have the money. I also cannot afford to hire a full-time teacher for my daughter and build a road. I can't maintain the roads I drive on. I don't have a large enough yard for a leach field and I don't think I could hand-dig a well and put in a cistern like my grandparents did on their plot of land. And I certainly cannot afford to build a municipal water supply and sewer system. Or a water treatment plant.

But if we all kick in to a common pot, we can get all of that done and more. So, we all agreed to do that and now, we have taxes. But we have services, too. We can send our children to public schools and, when we meet the teachers, we discover that they are qualified. We don't even think of what happens when we flush the toilet and, when we turn on the tap, we expect water that is clean and won't cause cholera.

We get in our car and drive on roads and occasionally run across a pothole. But mostly, the road is smooth. And there are sidewalks. And our trash is picked up. And in the winter, our streets are plowed. All, courtesy of our taxes.

Now there are some areas of this country where you have to take your own trash to the dump. Other areas where snow plows do not go. Still others where potholes have such longevity that you think, "When it's 21, I'll buy it a drink." But we all receive a lot of services we pretty much take for granted from our government. And I'd say our taxes are pretty low and our government is pretty honest.

So here's my message to Mr. Norquist: I didn't elect you to be so much as my dog-catcher. But you ought to be. Because even a dog catcher understands that taxes mean the people who provide public services all get paid a living wage. And the people paying those taxes get service that they're paying for. And the end result is a good town, city, county, state and country.