John Stossel, writing for RealClearPolitics has written a great article about all the hidden taxes local, state, and federal government have put upon us. One wonders whether Samual Adams and the patriots who threw British tea overboard in the “Boston Tea Party” would approve:

You probably don’t know how much you pay, because the government is sneaky about how it taxes you. Paying withholding taxes each pay period dulls the pain of the income tax — it’s money you earned, but it’s never in your hands — and a hundred other taxes are hidden. For my TV special “John Stossel Goes to Washington,” we followed St. Louis construction worker Bill Thurston and totaled the little-known taxes he paid daily. It started with the tax on the electricity that powered the alarm clock that woke him. Bill paid two taxes on his toothpaste. He paid a tax on water to get it into his home, and a sewer fee so it would go out. Daring to drive to work cost him more: He paid personal property tax on his truck; he had to pay sales tax when he bought it. And when he bought the gas, there was a county gas tax, a state gas tax and a federal gas tax.

At work, Bill gets stuck with local income tax, state income tax, federal income tax, Social Security tax and Medicare tax. Bill’s boss needs two employees just to calculate how much to withhold from paychecks, and while their salaries don’t go to the government (except for local income tax, state income tax, and so on), that’s money Bill’s employer can’t spend on developing his business or giving Bill a raise.

Because Bill’s wife works, the Thurstons pay a marriage tax of $1,000 a year. Then there’s the grocery tax, property tax, utility tax, FCC tax and a county tax on the cable TV, and a whole bunch of different taxes on the phone. And if after paying all these taxes Bill and his wife want to relax with beer or cigarettes, there are sin taxes on those.

Why should government cost us more than shelter? Political scientist James L. Payne examined the record of 14 congressional appropriations hearings and found that of 1,060 witnesses who testified, only seven spoke against spending money, while more than a thousand testified that the spending — whatever it was — was necessary. Even a politician who believes in limited government has a tough time resisting a constant onslaught of “needy” people saying, “This program is crucial!”

“In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.” - Benjamin Franklin, 1789