High-income Elitists Relieve Their Guilt With Your Money

Talk show host Dave Ross used to be somewhat independent - then he ran for Congress as a Democrat. Tim Eyman was a guest on his Seattle radio show on KIRO last week. They talked about Bill Gates' income hyper-tax initiative. This is a partial transcript of that interview.

Tim Eyman: "The Pandora's Box isn't just this proposal. It's a message from the voters, by voting for something like this, we're saying "You guys don't have a spending problem, you have a revenue problem, here's a bunch more money." And they're going to interpret that as "now we don't have to reform ourselves, we don't have to prioritize." I think Bill Gates Sr. is being extremely selfish ... he can afford any tax system. But what about those people on the bubble who are going to end of being jacked up with higher taxes (because of his initiative). He's only thinking of himself ... what we're going to end up getting in 2 years, 5 years, 10 years is higher taxes on everybody, people who can't afford the higher tax burden. Liberalism is a fantastic program if you can afford it. But there's normal people who can't afford all the things you guys wanna have."

Dave Ross: "The thing I noticed yesterday is that the liberals that would be affected by it were for it. ... I do feel a kind of liberal guilt for them to get the chance."

Eyman: "Don't feel guilty ... you're probably spending your money, giving a bunch of your money back to the economy. You have no reason to feel guilty. Chances are Libby (his producer) wouldn't have a job unless you have a job. I mean there are a lot of people who are benefiting from you making money. And I don't think you should feel guilty for it. If you want to give the government more money, feel free. You can give 'em extra money and I'm sure they'd be happy to take it. But when you start imposing taxes on everybody else to relieve your guilt, I think you're only thinking of yourself and you're not thinking of everyone else."

Ross: "That's true and I do feel better now. So you'd be OK if we cut my income taxes and institute a flat tax and got rid of progressive taxation altogether?"

Eyman: "I think that a flat tax would be better than the current federal system we have now. But once again, you always have to look at combined local, state, federal: we're all getting the crap kicked out of us when it comes to taxes. I don't think they should be raising taxes in the middle of a recession. I don't want it on the working class, I don't want it on high earners. I think they shouldn't be raising taxes right now."

During this year's legislative session, Democratic Party politicians in Olympia and the 'Public Interest Groups' (PIGs) that support them imposed $800 million in higher taxes. That turned out to be just an 'opening bid.' Now they're pushing for a billion dollars more with this income tax initiative.

They claim property taxes will be offset by 20%, but 1. This doesn't add up, and 2. Olympia has never willingly lowered taxes. A billion more won't be enough. No matter how much we give them, they always want more. Our tax initiatives are the only thing that have effectively restrained their insatiable appetite for higher taxes.

I-960's required 2/3's of the legislature vote in order to raise taxes. The I-960 law completely protected us from tax hikes for 2 years. There wasn't a single tax increase in 2008 and 2009 despite $9 billion in attempted deficits. Frustrated, the Democratic Party politicians in Olympia overthrew the will of the people and eliminated I-960.

I-1053 will restore this same complete protection for taxpayers in 2011 and 2012. Click to Voters Want More Choices

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According to Article VII, Section 1 of Washington’s Constitution “all taxes shall be uniform upon the same class of property within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax and shall be levied and collected for public purposes only.” Tax on income is illegal in Washington State. A 1933 State Supreme Court case also struck down the idea of creating an income tax.

But what if your income is not your property? The Democratic Party is trying to establish the dangerous precedent that your money is not yours. Gates insists the tax would be on income before an individual collects the income; the income is not in your immediate possession, therefore the income is not personal property. This notion only works if you do not own the income you make. Clearly, the Democratic Party scoundrels are trying to lay the axe to the root of the tree.

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Part of this item is from a press release by Voters Want More Choices