Robin Hood was just a Commie

“If Patrick Henry thought that taxation without representation was bad, he should see how bad it is with representation."—Farmer’s Almanac

Most of us recognize April 15 as the venerable date by which we must submit our income-tax returns.

If you successfully survived “Wealth Redistribution Day” last month, consider this: “Tax Freedom Day” for Nevadans didn’t occur until April 18. The concept of Tax Freedom Day was developed by the Tax Foundation to illustrate the steady growth in taxes at all levels of government. (The Tax Foundation is a nonprofit, non-partisan tax research organization based in Washington, D.C.)

Tax Freedom Day is the day, beginning from Jan. 1, when average Americans stop working to support local, state and federal governments and begin to support themselves. On average, we will spend 107 days, 29 percent of the year, to pay our taxes. This is more than we will spend working to pay for food (31 days), transportation (31 days), recreation (22 days), clothing (13 days) and savings (two days) combined.

As you contemplate that, consider this: It is tax-and-spend politicians—mostly Democrats—who love to portray themselves as modern-day Robin Hoods. Robin Hood, you may recall, is the fictional character who, along with his merry men, “robbed” from the rich and gave to the much needier, and morally entitled, poor—a classic illustration of the concept of wealth redistribution.

If you’ve frequented This Space before, you know that your host is about as far to the right of Fox News as they come. In fact, next to me, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh is a Democrat.

So it may come as a surprise that I completely subscribe to the aforementioned theory. In fact, I’ve never heard of a better economic theory in my life. Of course, to fathom the reason, one must first recall exactly who the “rich” was in the Robin Hood fable: a tyrannical King. The government—if you will—that mercilessly took from the people and gave to itself. (Anything sound vaguely familiar here?)It is only a complicit media that helps sustain Democrat dogma about taxes—that it’s the “haves” versus the “have-nots.” In reality, it’s the government and re-election-minded politicians with pet projects and socialist programs designed to garner votes versus the rest of us.

If you need further proof, recall the relentless terror campaign waged by the tax-and-spenders of all stripes in Nevada’s last legislative session. The loons crawled out of the proverbial woodwork, spouting phony-baloney drivel about the state’s “structural deficit” and “fluctuating revenue base.”

Courtesy of the governor, some turncoat Republican legislators and a complicit Nevada Supreme Court, an $883 million tax hike was foisted upon the Silver State.

In light of his actions two years ago, it’s nice that in our current legislative session Gov. Kenny “I finally developed a backbone” Guinn has threatened to veto any measure by the Legislature that doesn’t rebate the state’s now estimated $300 million surplus to taxpayers.

The governor wants a vehicle-registration rebate. Other legislators have their own versions of how and how much of their larcenous gains to “fairly” return—including not returning them at all.

Ironically, some wisdom about government and taxation comes to us from one of the most regressive and totalitarian regimes on the face of the planet—the People’s Republic of California.

“No one has ever raised taxes and solved the problem, nor will we solve the problem. We don’t have a revenue problem; we have a spending problem."—Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger