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Back to Quack Off
Quack Off
by
Free
Market Duck
Idaho Gov Butch Otter
Holds Secret Meeting to Tax Inner Tubes on Boise River
(Dec 01, 2007)
What's next, taxing Rubber Duckie water wings?
Boise, ID
– Hang onto your inner tubes, kids, and don't jump into the water just yet.
You might soon need a license to float the Boise River next summer.
No sooner do we
describe our Gov's continually-changing political views as a
Libertarian on Monday, GOP on Tuesday, Liberal on Wednesday, Socialist on
Thursday, Fascist on Friday, Cowboy on Saturday, and Catholic on Sunday,
than he pops up today, Fascist Friday, with another secret meeting to tax your rubber boats,
kayaks, and all non-motorized water craft in Idaho.
According to the
Idaho Statesman, motorized registrations rake in $1.6 million annually.
State taxes and federal earmark robberies rake in another $851,000.
Boiseans already pay an increased Ada County tax for the facilities at the
River Raft launches at Barber Park, one of the reasons for Otter's new
Rubber Duckie Inner Tube Tax.
We already pay
federal non-motorized boat taxes on the Payette, South Fork of the Snake,
Middle Fork of the Salmon, and Main Salmon Rivers. Should we tax our
children's rubber boots if they slosh home from school stomping in the
rain-filled street gutters? Oh-oh, I smell a Playing In The Sprinklers
& Wading Pool Tax coming up.
Benjamin Franklin
and James Madison are no doubt turning over in their graves right about now.
First we tax the fish under the water and now we tax non-motorized floating
objects (NMFOs) -- pronounced "nymphos" but not to be confused with
sex-starved saucy wenches in a Shakespearean play -- on top of the water. Should we tax Idaho submarines
and snorkelers next? Why not? Maybe we'll get more federal grant
money for Idaho Submarines?
When will this
incessant government spending that necessitates taxation for air and water and food
and houses and
purple shoestrings ever end? When we cut the Earth's population from 8
billion to more like 500 million, which is probably a more sustainable level
at which humans can coexist with Mother Earth without pollution and
over-crowding.
What we really have
is an
overpopulation problem, not a shortage of usage taxes. Since taxation
tends to discourage the taxed activity, maybe what we need is a new Screw
Tax -- make that a Birth Tax -- not a Rubber Duckie Inner Tube tax.
How about it, Gov Otter, does Monday work for you? -- FM Duck
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