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Show THE AMERICAN WAYj NO SKIN OFF feSn THE NOSE liej j By Georp "-m I The principal thing wrong with President Truman's proposal propo-sal of a flat $40-a-person tax cut is that it will relieve millions of present day taxpayers from the. responsibility of paying any taxes at all. The Bureau of Internal In-ternal Revenue estimates that such a plan would eliminate between be-tween 9 and 10 million Americans Ameri-cans from the tax rolls and that would be bad. Let me illustrate. A few years back I used to have an almost daily chat with a clerk in a cigar store that I was then honoring with my patronage. He was a likeable, friendly young chap and we indulged in much good-natured good-natured banter, some of it along economic and sociological lines. " Qne day he asked me just What I had pgainsj. the New Deal government, "My reply was tht it didn't seem to know the value of a dollar, that it was spending the taxpayers' money with the profligacy pf a drunken sailor. "Well, thaf no skin off my nose," he shot at me, "The government gov-ernment ain't gettin' any of my money." A year or so went by and then one day early in March, I made my usual daily visit to the cigar store. My friend din't seem to be his usual cheery self. To my inquiry in-quiry as to what'was wrong he replied: "I just came bsck from the Post Office had to go up there to buy a money order to pay income in-come tax." "What'c so bad about that? How much did you have to kick in to Uncle Sa?" I asked "$2.60! ! ! What the h - - - is the government doing with our money, anyway?" Further inquiry elicited the information in-formation that during the ure-vious ure-vious year he had receiye4 a raise in pay that lifted him into the income tax paying brackets for the first time. His whole at titude toward government spending spend-ing had been changed it was now skin off his nose. And now the President proposes pro-poses to excuse 10 million taxpayers tax-payers from paying taxes 10 million Americans who now have a stake in government and are concerned about what is being done with their tax money. The President would throw " ihoni back into the ranks of those who just don't care a continental as to how Washington unnecessarily unnecessar-ily scatters money hither and yon. It is the duty of every gainfully gain-fully employed citizen to pay taxes. To use a poker term, he should not be allowed to draw cards until he has thrown some chips into the pot. In other words, paying taxes is a part of the duty and responsibility of his citizenship. No, Mr. Truman! Your proposal pro-posal is unsound, economically and politically. Would it not be better to pare government expenses ex-penses to the bone? By so doing, taxes could be lowered but let's not take 10 million Ameri can citizens and put them into the unhappy position where like my old pal, the cigar clerk, they will be chanting, "What do I care about how the governme.it spends. It ain't no skin off my nose." Tio one likcs to pay taxes. To date, however, no one, not even Henry Wallace, has worked out a magic formula whereby a government gov-ernment can finance its operations opera-tions without collecting taxes. It follows, therefore, that in a Republic, all who enjoy the services ser-vices of government, should pay their fair share of maintaining it. The President proposes to relieve re-lieve 10 million Americans of the responsobility. My guess is that the Congress will not let him get away with it. What's yours?' |