I struck a nerve this morning (finally) with a swing voter in my office who watches a lot of FOX and has an entire family of wingnuts. We were talking about taxes. He was saying he doesn't want his taxes to go up and fears that a vote for Kerry is a vote for higher taxes. I started explaining to him that Bush has actually raised taxes on most Americans indirectly by starving state and local governments. Then I listed all the ways his taxes have gone up indirectly during the Bush administration. Here were some of the points I made:
- the increase in our health care premiums - they went up 20% this year for our company.
- increase in public transportation in NYC (they've gone up 33%)
- property taxes (raised 18.5%)
- state college tuition up 30%
- milk has gone up 50 cents a gallon
- gasoline has gone up almost 50%
It seemed to strike a chord - or maybe I just got to him before he had his morning coffee - but something clicked. What are some of the other ways George Bush has pushed the tax burden off the federal level and onto states and municipalities?
I could also mention to him about all the services that have been canceled or cutback but I feel that kind of talk will fall on deaf ears because he doesn't perceive himself as actually using any government services - apparently the only one he thinks even exists is welfare...