A Word from Our Founding Fathers – Taxes
Americans are overtaxed and under-informed.

By Herman Cain
National Chairman, Business & Media Institute
April 12, 2006

     We must never forget what drove our nation’s founders toward fighting for independence. The men who declared, fought for and secured our freedoms were responding to horrible abuses of power from a distant capital. Textbooks brim with stories of the many colonial complaints, but much of what Americans were upset about can be summed up in one word.

     Taxes.

     Some things never change. Nowadays, we have too much government, too many taxes and too little unbiased information about both. The media do a poor job of providing accurate information about where our tax dollars are spent. When they spin the news to make only certain programs seem acceptable, ordinary taxpayers have reason to be angry.

     Colonists were angry because their government – based in England – spent their hard-earned money without giving them a say. The colonists’ rallying cry was “No taxation without representation.” The Founding Fathers knew it’s one thing to have government take your money. It’s another to have no say in how that money is spent.

     No wonder the colonists were angry. It was their money after all.

     Two hundred and thirty years later, we have representation in a Capitol on our own soil. And we still have taxes – lots and lots of taxes. Payroll taxes. Sales taxes. Business taxes. Property taxes. The list is endless. It has to be to pay for our huge government. The federal government alone spent $2.4 trillion in 2005 – and that doesn’t even count all the state and local taxes you paid.

     On March 7, “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams introduced an entomologist’s taxpayer-funded research, training wasps to fight terrorism. Williams said, “When it’s taxpayer money, the taxpayers must ultimately decide if it’s worth it.”

     What a wonderful world Williams described – if only it were true. But many in the media and Congress don’t trust us enough with our own money. The liberal media spin stories so it appears that the big spending agenda in Congress – that advocates items such as “free” health care and increased Social Security benefits – is paid for by government almost by magic. Their phrasing changes in not-so-subtle ways on other issues, such as attacking the president for spending “taxpayer money” on White House novelties like fueling his motorcade or paying the chef.

     The reports have been even less subtle on the bigger issues of spending on the war on terrorism and Hurricane Katrina cleanup. Both were treated as prime opportunities to claim our tax money was being misspent. On the February 10 “CBS Evening News,” reporter Scott Pelley showed how war coverage slanted negatively. “The U.S. government is spending billions of your tax dollars fighting the war in Iraq and billions more to rebuild the country,” he said.

     Coverage of Hurricane Katrina was no different. On the January 6 “Early Show,” CBS’s Thalia Assuras interviewed acting FEMA Director David Paulison. Assuras tried to get Paulison to “assure the American people that FEMA is not wasting their money.” To hammer that point home, she followed up with “The taxpayers will be watching.”

     These examples are just the tip of an iceberg that the Media Research Center’s Business & Media Institute has been analyzing for many years. Look how reporter Chip Reid discussed stem cell research on the July 29, 2005, “NBC Nightly News.” “Fifty percent of Americans support federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research,” he claimed.

     I wonder what the percentage would have been if the survey question had read: “Do you support using your tax dollars to pay for federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research?”

     The size and scope of the federal government today differs greatly from the founders’ vision. It was Thomas Paine who said, “That government is best which governs least.” In America today, the battle between the political parties is too often an argument between big government Democrats and free-spending Republicans.

     Ordinary voters don’t want pork-barrel politics, and they don’t want waste today only to pass the bill on to their grandchildren. If every report about government spending said “your tax dollars,” that would be both honest and accurate. It’s all our money after all.

     It reminds me of one of the best movies about the Washington, D.C., political and media culture ever to come out of Hollywood – “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” Jimmy Stewart, as Sen. Jefferson Smith, was up against powerful Senate corruption. He spoke for all of us while fighting what seemed a losing battle. Nearly exhausted during his one-man filibuster, Stewart cried hoarsely: “Great principles don’t get lost once they come to light. They’re right here; you just have to see them again!”

     Those principles are our legacy. It’s important that we recall this great nation was founded in part on a demand for fairer taxes. It’s all our money after all – even if the media hide that fact.


Herman Cain is the former president and CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, Inc. and currently is CEO and president of T.H.E. New Voice, Inc., a business and leadership consulting company. He is the National Chairman of the Media Research Center’s Business & Media Institute.