Nanny State Mud Balls

I must confess to being a bit puzzled. After all, isn’t, the most invasive and intrusive arm of the federal big government the IRS? With Mike Huckabee’s Fair Tax plan, the IRS would be abolished, because the Fair Tax would tax consumption instead of income. So why does it seem that Mike Huckabee gets such visceral attacks from the “real conservatives” who say they hate “big government” so much?

Looking at the other GOP presidential candidates, they (with the exception of Giuliani) and their supporters claim to be more conservative than Mike. And of course, the great Rush Limbaugh—no elitist he— “know(s) who the conservatives are and aren’t”. Then how come the IRS is just fine with all of them? (with some notable exceptions, like Neal Boortz—who literally wrote the book on the Fair Tax—and Mark Levin).

I wonder what these “real conservatives” think the founding fathers would think of the IRS. How could the likes of Jefferson and Madison possibly have countenanced a federal government agency that had the power to intrude without limit into the intimate financial details of its citizens, because it needed to find out how much everybody earns, from whom and for what? Is it any wonder that it took a 20th century amendment to the US Constitution (the 16th, ratified in 1913) to create that monster in the first place? I think the founding fathers would be very suspicious of politicians who thought the likes of the IRS was tolerable in any way, especially if they claimed to be the “true conservatives”. Maybe that’s one reason Mike’s message resonates so well with conservative voters. He appreciates that most Americans fear an IRS audit more than they fear getting mugged.

Let’s face it. The Fair Tax would not only serve its named purpose of making the tax system fair, and provide huge benefits for the economy, by for example, reversing the offshore exodus of American capital, but it would also have the enormous benefit of getting the federal government out of our lives in so many ways. Not only would there be no IRS to keep track of our intimate personal financial details, but the institution of the Fair Tax would also end the myriad system of income tax credits and deductions, thereby ending that most precious preoccupation of liberal legislators: manipulating the tax code to engineer social policy, regarding everything from housing to health care to education. Truth is, nothing could possibly do more to reverse the slide toward the nanny state we’ve been on during our entire lifetime, than the enactment of Mike Huckabee’s Fair Tax.

So, beware the verbal volleys launched by the “true conservatives” who think the IRS is just fine, or who think the IRS is a ‘necessary evil’, or who think that in our democracy, the will of the majority could never hit the delete button on the IRS. Beware the rhetoric that would claim the constitutional high ground in the presidential race; those who say they want to restore the original intent of the framers of our Constitution, but cannot countenance ending the tyranny of the IRS.

They’re just slinging nanny state mud balls, and they won’t stick to Mike Huckabee!