Modern 'Taxation without Representation': The Bush/McCain tax policy

Today McCain called for a review of Federal Programs seeking ways to 'reduce spending'. This policy falls directly in lock-step with his mentor, Bush's amazing cuts to hundreds of social services, as military spending surely isn't McCain's target. I raise this because Americans are fooled by the Republicans into believing that lower taxes means smaller government.

The trick that Bush pulled off was to lower taxes for Americans today but funded an ENORMOUS spending habit with our children's tax dollars and their children's tax dollars. How does this work? It preys on Americans love of debt, embracing 'credit cards' at every level. Americans clearly have been programmed to believe that any amount charged to the future is worth the spending that occurs now.

Obama will get pegged in this election of being for 'Big Government' and 'higher taxes'. Please don't be fooled: the Bush/McCain policies are equally 'Big Government' masked through massive borrowing from generations that can't even vote on the issue. Isn't that brilliant? Talk about taxation without representation: Bush could never have paid for his wars with money from current tax payers because he would have had to raise taxes! Instead, he and congress 'requested' the money from future generations through massive debt. What would those taxpayers think if they actually had a voice?

Our children and grandchildren will find their taxes being spent on servicing debt that could have been spent servicing their education, their roads, their electrical grid, their health. Instead, George Bush found the largest credit card in human history: the US tax payer. It is no secret his tax cuts helped the rich disproprotionately while the average US citizen will payoff the long term debts.

Tax cuts do NOT inherently mean the candidate advocates for small government. In the current Republican party, there is no fiscally conservancy except when it comes to cutting social services for the poor or middle-income Americans. McCain will only continue to allow private interest unhindered access to US taxpayer monies.

Obama's policies might scare some people, but please, tell them it is time for Americans to pay for programs as we go, or PAYGO as it is referred to. If Americans truly want to fight wars (which they don't), then let's raise taxes now and fight as much as we want? The reality is, Americans would NEVER have supported Bush's wars if Joe Taxpayer saw the price coming out of his paychecks along with Social Security, Medicare, and War Funding!

(FYI: The theory that Bush was 'mislead by false information into mistakenly taking the US to war in Iraq' has been debunked by the Congressional Five-year report released this week that documents how Bush, Cheney, Rumsfield, Rove and others systematically aggressively pushed the war, ignored intelligence contradictions, manipulated information, and used the media to generate public support')

McCain is looking to appease the wealthy now by supporting the Bush regime. But please: let's be fair and do the Democratic version of the 'flipflop' dance the Republicans used so successfully to kill John Kerry's bid: McCain voted against the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 yet now has a bearhug around them now?

Obama may raise taxes but he recognizes that social services in the present are important and that spending the next two generations' tax dollars without asking them first is sinister and irresponsible.

The Republicans have found new methods of taxation without representation. But is it surprising that they have rolled back yet another basic principle upon which we live? Not at all. Jose Padilla was already an example of a US citizen held for years with no representation and stripped of citizenry, a right inherent to precisely being a US citizen. Likewise, I feel my children and their children should be able to vote for how their tax dollars should be spent.

Obama agrees and wants Americans to pay for their priorities with current tax dollars. McCain's policies will only bury this country's future six feet under.