As a Libertarian I believe that economic liberty is necessary for all members of society to have abundant opportunities to achieve economic success. Efforts by government to regulate the economy, redistribute wealth, or to control or manage trade via excessive taxation are improper and counterproductive in a free society. Unfortunately, our Rhode Island government offers prime examples of this.
While our roads and bridges decay and our State Police must waste money standing guard on major highways like I-95 in Pawtucket to keep truckers from using a public highway for the purpose for which was designed, our excessively high gas taxes that could provide for rebuilding this infrastructure are routinely misappropriated by our Legislature and put into the General Fund to pay for the pet projects of these politicians.
The car tax that our Legislature has notoriously regulated for years now causes cities and towns to forcefully reach into our pockets for hundreds of dollars more this year, money that could be much better spent on the essential food and fuel our families need to live.
Now that recent federal payroll FICA withholding reductions should be showing up as increases in our weekly paychecks, allowing us to spend locally to help jump start our shattered neighborhood economies, this same Legislature recently voted to increase state tax withholdings, effectively denying us much of that intended weekly increase in our take home pay.
And this is before we even begin to talk about Gov. Chaffee’s proposed new tax on the food and clothing we need to properly provide for the basic human needs of ourselves and our loved ones.
Shouldn’t we tell our politicians that we know better than they do how to spend our money? It’s time we all supported the Libertarian approach, told our elected officials to get their hands off our money, lower our taxes and get RI moving again.