Conservatives

are often accused of being opposed to all taxes and all

government.

It's a

foolish stereotype, but there it is.

Just for

the record, I am 100 percent in favor of taxes and 100

percent in favor of government.

I'm even in

favor of the federal government. Without it, what is

known today as the U.S.A. would have been carved up into

a bunch of little countries, each competing for power and

influence.

There

wouldn't have been 50. Much larger sections of the

continent would have rallied around one flag or another.

Who knows

what sort of world we would have ended up with.

Conservatives

- the vast majority of us - don't oppose the

federal government. We just think it ought to operate

within the bounds of the U.S. Constitution, which created

it. We don't believe the federal government should be as

large, as powerful and as interested in every detail of

our lives as it is.

We don't

oppose taxes, either. We just think that governments

ought to be bound by the Constitution when they impose

taxes, and should use that money only for the purposes

specifically authorized in the Constitution. And we think

that a government that takes 40 to 50 percent of the

average family's income in taxes can't by the wildest

stretch of reasoning consider itself to be a champion of

freedom and human rights.

That's such

a basic, fundamental belief that it's hard to imagine

anyone disagreeing with it. I'm trying to picture those

who are not conservative reading those lines and

protesting, "We agree in principle, but we don't

believe the governments are doing more than they are

authorized to do. We think they should do more."

But I

suppose there are some who are thinking, "I

disagree. The Constitution is just a general guideline.

Governments ought to be creative. No limits should be

placed on the size of government, the scope of its

activity or its power over individuals."

That

probably sounds more sarcastic than I mean it to be.

Truthfully, I can't imagine that any other way of

thinking resides in the cranium of the average American

liberal.

I've been

watching the presidential candidates, trying to decide

who might get my vote, and I'm afraid I haven't seen or

heard anything that gives me much to choose from.

My ideal

candidate wouldn't be talking about cutting back a little

on the rate of growth of the government and its budget.

He or she would be talking about a minimum of a 20

percent reduction in the size of the government and its

spending, including elimination of several agencies, even

whole departments.

If the

person I'm waiting for ever gets in, we won't be arguing

about whether to use the "surplus" to

"save Social Security," pay down the debt or

grant a tax cut. We'll be talking about maintaining

Social Security for those who have counted on it in the

past, and gradually doing away with it entirely for those

who have time to change horses. And with the

above-mentioned 20 or 30 percent reduction in government,

we'd have a much larger surplus, large enough to cut

taxes back a little bit now, and then slash them back to

a level that truly makes sense in a free society once we

eliminated the debt.

And we'd be

talking about sales taxes, not income taxes.

Our

government, as it's currently organized, has become

extremely adept at hiding tax increases. All the taxes

should be in one place where we can see them, so we will

know when our taxes have been increased and a tax hike

won't be disguised as "tax reform," obscured in

a thousand lines of a thousand pages of cumbersome tax

code.

Sales taxes

are better than income taxes for numerous reasons, but

the one that matters most to me is that it's simply wrong

for a government to tax its citizens' incomes. It's just

wrong, period.

I'm a

little disappointed that Fayette's local government is

talking about funding its jail and courthouse

construction by borrowing money rather than using a sales

tax and paying as it goes. I understand the reasons for

it, but I still tend to favor a sales tax.

It's simple

and clean, and you can't hide it. And I don't worry about

letting future residents help pay for the jail. I'd

rather pay for it in five years and let future residents

pay for whatever construction is needed in five years.

There's plenty to go around.

But a sales

tax in Fayette County has a snowball's chance, and the

jail has to be built, so that's that.

According

to lore, taxes get equal billing with death as things in

life that are inevitable. But the way our society is

beginning to think, we'll have to add a government and

tax system that grows faster than the overall economy as

the third inevitable fact of life.

May it not

be so.