Tax nonsense coming your way

Paul Soglin's talking nonsense over at Waxing America.

About nonsense. I mean he’s talking about nonsense:

In the coming weeks, Wisconsinites will be inundated with misinformation, bad math, and assorted ideological drivel from snake-oil salesmen purporting to be experts on taxes…

The theme will be simple and misinformed...Wisconsinites will be reminded that while residents of other states will heave earned enough to pay the tax bill by April 22nd or 23rd, Badger state residents will be working until at least the first of May for the government.

We will be told that in Wisconsin we suffer the seventh or perhaps, the fifth highest tax burden in the United States.

Soglin says the studies are “flawed, badly flawed” for several reasons.

In one way, I agree with him. Rankings are not the best way to measure tax burden. I wrote this last year:

If every other state doubled their taxes tomorrow, our ranking would plummet, but the real numbers would remain. The government takes over 12% of income earned in this state – and that’s just the taxes, not the fees.

And that’s just the state and local governments. Add federal taxes in, and the numbers come out to 33%: one dollar of every three earned.

Which, of course, means people still have two dollars left. Go to work, government!

One dollar out of every three earned. And that still doesn’t include the fees.

Isn’t that an amazing figure? How does anybody – even a Lefty – look at that and not say: “Wow, that’s a lot. And we're spending all that money on what, exactly?”

Soglin can argue that it's not enough, if he wants. He can argue that it’s not so bad. He can argue that every single government expenditure is absolutely essential to the future and well-being of our state, nation, and people.

I disagree with those arguments, but he's free to make them. And: if he wants to throw poop on those of us who are concerned about this confiscatory level of taxation, doesn’t he have to make those arguments?