October 8, 2007

Cigarettes, Beer and Freedom

Hihger taxes equals less freedom - it's a bit of political math on full display right now in Tennessee, where if you want to go across the border into a neighboring state to save a few dollars on cigarettes you risk being arrested by Tennessee revenue agents and having your car confiscated. And, now, they're also going to be checking to see if you bought beer out of state.

Of course, Tennesseans also pay a high sales tax on their groceries, and many a Tennessean living in a border community does their grocery shopping across the border in other states where the sales tax on groceries is lower, or non existent.

Will they soon be arresting folks for that, too?

Tennesseans, this is what voting for Democrats for the state legislature and for governor gets you. They increased the cigarette tax and now they sic law enforcement on you if you decide to shop somewhere else.

Today, it's beer and cigarettes, but the same liberal Big Government bureaucratic rationale for using the police to nail people for trying to save money on their cigarettes and beer could easily be used to justify stationing Tennessee revenue agents in cross-border grocery stores, clothing stores, indeed in any retailer, monitoring purchases by shoppers whose cars have Tennessee license plates.

And how would the state of Tennessee pay for all the extra law enforcement personnel? Why, by raising taxes of course.

High taxes equals less freedom.

If next November's ballot had just two choices - if you were asked to pull the lever, push the bottom or punch the chad for "More Freedom," or "Less Freedom," most Tennesseans - indeed, most Americans - would vote for "More Freedom."

We DO have that choice every election. If you vote for candidates who believe in and will work to limit the size and power and cost of government and will vote for lower taxes and against higher taxes, you ARE voting for more freedom. On the other hand, people who vote for bigger government and higher taxes are voting for the state to monitor what you purchase out of state - they are voting for less freedom.

Higher taxes equals less freedom.

The real shame of it is, if the Tennessee legislature last Spring had rejected the Democratic plan to increase taxes and instead adopted the Republican proposal to reduce and eventually eliminate the sales tax on groceries, the people crossing the border to save a few dollars would be people from other states shopping in Tennessee - supporting jobs in Tennessee and perhaps even generating some tax revenue for Tennessee when they purchased taxable (non-food) items.

State government would be spending less on tax enforcement, bringing in more revenue from out of state, and not treating the good people of Tennessee like criminals for trying to save a few bucks.

Update:: It's worth remembering that when the cigarette tax increase came before the Tennessee state senate, all 16 Republicans in the Senate voted against the tax while all 16 Democrats, plus their favorite-pet independent Sen. Micheal Williams, voted for it. The vote for less freedom was, therefore, 17-16.