Huckabee and Tax Me More

Well, first I somehow leave Mike Huckabee off my list of potential 2008 Republican candidates. Then, when I mention him in a later post, I somehow neglect to mention one of the coolest things about him. They were having budget shortfalls down in Arkansas (as just about every state was), and the dems, naturally, wanted to raise taxes, especially on the "rich" (there's a problem with referring to people in the various tax brackets as rich or poor, because it's an income tax, not a wealth tax (for instance, a person making $20,000 a year could win the second prize playing Powerball, and make $200,000 (though lose about half to taxes), make the top income tax bracket one year -- thus qualifying him as "rich" to some -- and then fall back to the $20,000 a year -- making him "poor" again)). Well, Huckabee wouldn't hear of it, so when the dems started saying they could afford to pay more in taxes, he created the "Tax Me More Fund" through which a person who felt he was undertaxed could pay more money. Naturally, there were very few takers. He told the dems to put their money where there mouth was, and while at least one of them went ahead and did it, most of the others somehow didn't feel so undertaxed anymore.

Now, while this was mostly a victory of rhetoric, it did have some practical results. Taxes stayed low, and the legislature looked towards budget cuts instead, which resulted in the normal economic benefit and greater financial freedom for taxpayers. The fund has been copied in Virginia and Massachusetts. Somehow, though, politicians such as John Kerry and Barney Frank (both of Massachusetts) who always complain that Bush isn't taxing them enough, have felt perfectly comfortable paying the lower tax rates in Massachusetts. Frank even said “I don’t trust the legislative leadership and Gov. [Mitt] Romney to make the right decisions, so I’ll donate the money myself, probably to some health clinics in New Bedford that are going to get hit hard in the new budget.” Hmm, isn't it strange that while he doesn't trust government to make all the right spending decisions, he thinks everyone else should? There are those (like myself) who believe that the federal government should do the same thing, either through executive order by the President (akin to how Huckabee created the original fund in Arkansas), or by passing it through Congress. They could simply make a spot on the 1040 where taxpayers could check if they wish to pay a higher amount. It could be done like in Massachusetts, where they'd pay the amount they would have owed under the previous tax rate (that before Bush's tax cut in this case), or (as I believe it is done in Arkansas) pay however much more they think is fair. This would not be a big money maker, judging by its previous application (and common sense), but it would make liberals put their money where there mouth is, and might just get them to shut their big mouths for once (just about every member of Congress would qualify as rich, and those that didn't are at least upper-middle class).