Government taxation growing at alarming rate

Howard Rich is chairman of Americans for Limited Government. Here’s a snippet from a recent column he distributed to newspapers around the country:

The mindless government growth we have witnessed over the past decade is clearly unsustainable — but Washington politicians are trying to sustain it anyway via trillions of dollars in tax hikes over the coming decade.

Having already crippled the free market, their goal now appears to be its complete destruction — the suppression of all innovation and entrepreneurship as a new era of dependence on government begins.

Under the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, the federal

government has spent trillions of dollars it doesn’t have growing government by leaps and bounds.

Just how deep a hole has the government dug for us? Since 2001, more than $7.5 trillion has been added to the national debt — including $4.2 trillion over the three previous budget years alone.

More deficit spending is coming, too, and with it even larger interest payments. In fact, according to the Congressional Budget Office more than half of the $9 trillion in new deficit spending forecast for the coming decade will be in the form of interest — with annual payments reaching as high as $533 billion by 2015, according to some estimates.

To pay this tab — and to pave the way for additional borrowing in the future — Obama and his Congressional allies are making a beeline for your wallets and pocketbooks. What has been dubbed the “Tax Tsunami” begins in earnest on Jan. 1.

Barring Congressional action, every income tax bracket will increase on Jan. 1 as the 2001 and 2003 income tax cuts (along with numerous family tax credits and exemptions) are allowed to expire.

Simply put, income and wealth is being targeted at every level — wherever it can be found — in an effort to feed the unruly beast that our government has become.