re: #106 kirkspencer

You want better fed work on the border? Cool - pay for it. Accept an increase in taxes.

Now, I happen to think you’re wrong about the Arizona issue. I note that crime has been decreasing for the past decade. I note that crimes involving illegals have been decreasing for the past decade. These notes tell me that you’re responding not to fact but to perception, driven by the steady drumbeat of some folk with an axe to grind. But that’s beside the point.

We’ve only a tiny fraction of the number of border patrol officers we should have. It’s not the only agency suffering this way, but it’s a glaring example. To approach the level being demanded requires a significant increase in the numbers of officers available. The only way to get them is to pay for them. The only way to pay for them is to increase taxes.

Now the reality of life and politics is that you can’t guarantee taxes are going only to this, that or the other agency. There are shortfalls in performance in almost every agency that could be recovered by increasing the number of workers. The dollars you raise will go in a variety of directions, only some of which will be the border patrol. So if you want improvement you have to accept higher taxes - at least back to the 1990s, and maybe back to some stronger eras - say, the 1950s where the marginal tax rate on incomes over $400,000 was 91%.

Are you willing to have your taxes raised to take care of the millions of problems with which we’re dealing? I am.

Wait a minute! Are you suggesting that there is a direct relationship between taxes and spending, and that if we want our government to do more, we have to expect to pay for it?

Are you some kind of dirty commie?

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