Your Taxes Are About To Go Up, Without a Vote
The great economist Milton Friedman once said, “Inflation is taxation without legislation.” Well, your taxes are about to “seriously” increase, according to a report in today’s USA Today, which began:
“U.S. consumers face "serious" inflation in the months ahead for clothing, food and other products, the head of Wal-Mart's U.S. operations warned Wednesday.”
Nevertheless, the USA Today story, by Jayne O’Donnell, went on to say:
“Still, inflation is "going to be serious," Wal-Mart U.S. CEO Bill Simon said during a meeting with USA TODAY's editorial board. "We're seeing cost increases starting to come through at a pretty rapid rate."
“Along with steep increases in raw material costs, John Long, a retail strategist at Kurt Salmon, says labor costs in China and fuel costs for transportation are weighing heavily on retailers. He predicts prices will start increasing at all retailers in June.
"Every single retailer has and is paying more for the items they sell, and retailers will be passing some of these costs along," Long says. "Except for fuel costs, U.S. consumers haven't seen much in the way of inflation for almost a decade, so a broad-based increase in prices will be unprecedented in recent memory."
“Consumer prices — or the consumer price index — rose 0.5% in February, the most since mid-2009, largely because of surging food and gasoline prices . . . .”
Write or call your representatives in Congress:
- Senator Jim Webb (D) -- write to him or call (202) 224-4024.
- Senator Mark Warner (D) - write to him or call (202) 224-2023.
- Representative Jim Moran (D) -- write to him or call (202) 225-4376.