Back to Quack Off

 Quack Off               

by Free Market Duck

Socialist Double Speak:  Why Aren’t Boise’s Sales Tax Exemptions Considered a Stimulus to the Economy?

Sep 25, 2010

Boise, ID – As usual, the left Liberal Progressives at the Idaho Statesman newspaper like to play a game of Socialist Double Speak, depending on what they want.  When the left Liberals claim that Keynesian economics can “stimulate” an economy by printing up tons of paper money and distributing said dollars out to everybody to spend, the left Liberals call it a “stimulus.”  But when the left Liberals claim they need to tax the crap out of everybody to spend on government education, the socialist left Liberals redefine leaving money in the pockets of the taxpayers as dirty “sales tax exemptions.”

   So which is it:  a nasty sales tax exemption or a “stimulus” to the economy, or both?

   What’s the difference between the government inflating more paper money and giving it away to taxpayers to spend, and the government allowing sales tax exemptions to be left in the pockets of people so they can spend it?

   The difference is that the left Liberals do not have a rational view of economics and thus tend to redefine the same actions – leaving or putting money in the pockets of consumers -- in contradictory terms as their (the left Liberals’) purposes suit them.  A lot of it has nothing to do with economics but rather with the exercise of raw power.  That’s another story for another day.

   If Liberals want more money from the consumers for Public Education, they vilify sales tax exemptions as wrongful money left in the pockets of the consumer.  If Liberals want the consumers to spend spend spend to “stimulate” the economy, they redefine putting more money into the taxpayers’ pockets as a wonderful “stimulus.”  Thus, leaving money in the pockets of consumers due to not taxing them is, for Liberals, not the same as printing up and putting money into the pockets of consumers.  In the first instance, they define it as a bad, nasty sales tax exemption, and in the latter case they call it a wonderful economic “stimulus.”  What a contradiction.

   The real irony of this twisted economic reasoning is that Liberals want to implement both programs simultaneously AND they do not view this as a contradiction in terms.  In their illogical minds, money in peoples’ pockets is not the same as money in peoples’ pockets.  Sales tax exemptions are not seen by Liberals as a stimulus to the economy.

   So let’s briefly look at what the left Liberals stupidly argue as “tax exemptions” with the left hand while denying this same money as a “stimulus” with the right hand.  Let’s look at Popkey’s definition of “foregone revenue” -- sales tax exemptions -- from the Top 10 Sales Tax Breaks while he dismisses this same $1.36 billion as a “stimulus” left in the pockets of consumers to spend.

1.    Health and medical services, $397 million as doctors, dentists, hospitals and nursing homes escape Idaho’s sales taxes.  So why doesn’t Popkey simply consider this money as a “stimulus” to – in the Liberals’ own words – boost the economy with $397 million left in this groups’ pockets to spend?  The Liberals have been yelling and screaming at all the high health care costs and yet here they are ready to increase health care costs by getting rid of $397 million worth of health care sales tax exemptions.

2.    Professional services, $181 million “lost” to the government according to the Liberals as legal, accounting, architecture, consulting, scientific research and advertising escape sales taxes.  Hey, why not consider this as a stimulus?

3.    Motor fuels, $152 million is sob, sob, “lost” “foregone” “missing” “not there” as fuels subject to other fuel taxes escape sales taxes.  Wow, let’s all cry that our fuel is not double taxed, shall we?  If Liberals could enact a “death tax” on gasoline at the pump, I guess they would.

4.    Business services, $118 million “lost” “poof, gone” in sales tax exemptions, oh boo-hoo, as office, employment, building, facility and security services allow these guys to keep $118 milsky in their pockets to pay for health care and gasoline and accounting which also escape sales taxes, hey what the… looks like sales tax exemptions snowball… or should we say… “stimulus” money snowballs… or we could play Liberal Economic Circle Jerk all day long.

5.    Construction, $101 million as labor is not taxed.  Stop whining, Popkey.  This is a great sales tax exemption.  It keeps housing prices down, so, you know, parents have more money for your Public Education system, and laborers who are also Mommies and Daddies have more coins left in their pockets to stimulate the economy when they buy more iPods at Best Buy to listen to CDs while hammering the nails in your future house.

6.    Production exemption, equipment, $94 million escapes the taxman but also is left in the taxpayers’ pockets as dum-da-dum a “stimulus.”

7.    Utility sales, $91 million is “foregone” revenue to Da Gumment as Electricity, gas, and water escapes Idaho’s sales tax but doesn’t escape other federal and state taxes, don’tcha know?  What if I get my energy free from the space-time continuum; should it be taxed?  Never mind, that’s in another article at FM Duck Web Site.

8.    Information services, $84 million “lost” forever, oh no, sob, sob, as phone, cable TV and Internet providers are not sales-taxed to death.  But do we pay through the nose in fed taxes for these services, you bet.

9.    Production exemptions, supplies, $71 million not collected in sales taxes to produce a product for resale.  Thank God.  Wake up, you dummy Liberals.

10. Social services, $69 million “lost” to the taxman as adult and child day care, residential care, and adoption services are not taxed.  Oh my God, somebody’s little old granny thus may have some money left over in her pocket to buy non-sales taxed gasoline to drive to the drug store and buy non-sales taxed meds prescribed by her non-sales taxed doctor so she can pay her non-sales taxed accountant to save her more money to, as Liberals would say, “stimulate” the economy.

   So, Dan Popkey and the Progressive left Liberals at the Idaho Statesman, let’s stop whining about all the sales tax exemptions in Idaho and just consider them as a “stimulus” to the economy.  Hey, it’s your Keynesian Economic Village Idiot logic, not mine.  Put your stimulus money where your sales tax exemptions are and stop espousing economic contradictions. – FM Duck

        back to top...