Is Rally Right really anarchy?

Like many people I generally ignore the bickering between sides in politics. Political gamesmanship doesn't put bread on my table and besides, those dire predictions each side makes never seem to come to pass anyway.

Recently a comment in The Press by Jeff Alltus about political arrogance in state politics got me thinking: What does this Rally Right group stand for? Why do members like Phil Hart refuse to accept paying income taxes? What's their position and what makes them different from me, middle class single parent who pays taxes through the nose? I don't like paying taxes, but I really don't need a second home on the lake or in Palm Springs to lessen the tax bite. I also realize that the role of government is maintaining order and stability in society, and isn't that worth paying taxes anyway?

We can argue till the cows come home about the Constitutional meaning of direct tax, but at the end of the day, the courts have repeatedly upheld that with Amendment XVI, ratified in 1913, it is perfectly legal for government to collect tax on personal income. We can also argue about the fairness of an income tax that doesn't account for the varied needs of a family making due on what's left after the taxman taketh away.

Support an end to income tax altogether? You bet, by replacing it with new indirect, or consumption taxes attached to the things people buy. It makes perfect sense; the person who eats at the Heart Attack Cafe every day should pay at the pump, so when it's time to clean his arteries that extra sin tax he paid helps to pay for the health care now needed to save his life.

Those folks flying around in private jets should pay a mega-consumption tax for that privilege as well. No reason to give them tax deductions for the privilege like we do now.

And above all, the person who pays no income or corporate taxes, illegal businesses that fail to report income and even the untaxed corner drug dealer; they wouldn't be able to escape paying if most tax was paid when they visit a store or use a service.

I digressed: Rally Right - what does it stand for? Change, new ideas about raising money desperately needed for broken roads and to keep our schools open?

Phil Hart wants to mint a silver dollar. Can we really create legal Idaho tender and turn a profit? It may sound cool, but doesn't it seem that the startup costs would be costly and the completion mighty steep? And who will buy it anyway? Value is merely perception.

I can't imagine hauling around a pocket full of silver dollars. I have a hard enough time as it is keeping my pants hanging right. Phil, I don't think this is a very good venture for state government. How about encouraging folks to pay their taxes willingly?

This new team is interesting. Trying to understand what their agenda is isn't so simple. Steve Vick's position platform sounds like someone running for Congress, not state Senate. Steve, I know you're from Montana and all, but Idaho has a balanced budget amendment and I'm not sure that state regulations are all that "onerous or repressive," unless of course you are a 9-5 employee. As for Vito Barbieri, he doesn't have a platform available to the web savvy, so we can't be sure what we have. I guess we'll take him at face value and call it good, eh?

Let's be honest: If you want services and infrastructure the privilege will cost you. Government cannot snap its fingers and make those things appear, and if we cut the state and county budgets any leaner there won't be anything left unless maybe you are open to considering license renewals available only three days per week, or how about all-volunteer fire departments?

The state of Idaho is actually run pretty well. Thankfully, it's not run like the boom/bust of our neighbors in Washington where they add new programs during the good times then can't pay for them when the economy goes south.

The federal government, well let's say that the Congress, is out of control. It's under the spell of the almighty campaign donation. That has to stop, as do the unfunded mandates that Congress imparts upon the states, lifetimes spent on the Hill, generous retirement and benefit packages for members and their families. It's become a stinking aristocracy; the decisions made by these career politicians are bankrupting this country and we the people. This has to change, but until it does everyone needs to pay their taxes, which brings me back to the question: What does Rally Right really stand for, change or anarchy?

Reid Harlocker is a resident of Hayden Lake.