In the Wall Street Journal, January 10, 2010 Clark S. Judge give the GOP ten tips for 2010.  All are valuable tips, but we would like to add an eleventh tip which will help enable the agenda of liberty and freedom.  Specifically:

Clark S. Judge makes some terrific points in his January 11, 2010 article, however I believe that the Republicans are missing a big opportunity if they do not add a number eleven to his list.  Republicans – and Democrats – lament that it is difficult to keep the electorate engaged for long periods, thus the Democrats have created a state of perpetual chaos and crisis while proposing coercion from Washington as the solution.  Republicans need an issue that resonates with the general public to distinguish themselves from the Democrats, and that issue derives from the public’s desire for transparent government and individual freedom.

For more than half a century tax rates have been hidden from the citizens.  This serves only one interest, the power-hungry political class. Talking about rates is not enough.  Writing about rates is not enough.   The Tea Parties have begun to disseminate the message, yet many people remain unaware of the true tax rates they are paying.  One potential answer: eliminate withholding taxes.  Eliminating withholding is completely revenue neutral, yet provides people with knowledge and a continuous reminder of what all the ‘free’ services offered by the government actually cost people in dollar terms- terms that consume the resources, time and lives of the people being forced to pay for them.  The cost to liberty is immeasurable.  Politicians who are truly interested in tax reform or freedom would support an end to withholding; politicians who don’t stand with their power hungry motives exposed.  Power over the purse-strings of the country is power over the country.   Power over the country is power over us as individuals.

In short, withholding masks the true size and scope of government and hides the cost to liberty that that entails.  Only politicians who want power over the citizens of the United States will support keeping withholding taxes and the Stop Withholding Tax Pledge (StopWithholding.com) provides a black and white test – transparency and freedom vs opaqueness and servitude.  True tax reform will only happen from the bottom up and that will happen only with the clarity that is provided by revealing the true tax rate to the citizens of the United States.  Withholding is the enabler of big government.  The sincerity of those who claim to oppose big government may be judged by their willingness to remove the enabler.  Eliminating withholding is like truth in advertising:  people will then really know what they are paying for and what they are getting in return.