Americans have a more balanced view of taxing and spending than some politicians are willing to give them credit for:
As a follow-up to Ed's earlier post, which highlighted the results of a new Rasmussen poll that showed most Americans want the government to reduce spending, I present these interesting findings from a Reason-Rupe poll. Americans resist the idea that the government should raise taxes to finance infrastructure, preferring instead to pay for transportation costs directly through tolls. According to the poll, 58 percent think new tolls instead of new taxes should fund new roads and highways — while just 28 percent prefer tax increases to tolls.
Spend less, please, and what you do spend get more from tolls than from taxes. Give us real value for money, in other words, instead of throwing it away.
One way to create that value is greater use of things like tolls. They're called "fees," but they're really just another kind of tax. They differ from other taxes in that the money is dedicated to a specific purpose and designed so that the people most using the product or service pay the most. Gasoline taxes serve the same function, as do taxes on such things as alcohol and tobacco if the money is used for the extra burdens on health care because of alcohol and tobacco.
The thing is, though, you have to watch the politicians all the time. They might start out with a prudent vow to give taxpayers value, but the temptation is too great to just pile up money from all sources and spend it on whatever creates the most political value. Or do you still have a child's faith in the Social Security lock box?
