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Higher Taxes Delays Tax Freedom Day

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Today is Tax Freedom Day. Americans have earned enough to pay all their annual taxes.

But this day comes later than last year because Americans are paying even more in taxes -- more than they will pay for food, housing and clothing.

According to the Tax Foundation, Americans will have to spend more than 29 percent of their income on the various taxes they will pay in 2013.

"So we're paying more in taxes, we're spending more," Seton Motley, founder and president of Less Government, told CBN News. "This is not the direction we're supposed to be going.  This is not what the founders intended or envisioned.  We are not getting our money's worth."    

This year, Americans will pay more than $2.75 trillion in federal taxes. But according to the Tax Foundation, that's not even enough to pay for all of Washington's spending.

It would cost an additional $833 billion in taxes to cover the federal deficit.

Americans will also pay nearly $1.5 trillion in state taxes. It all adds up to a total of $4.22 trillion. And some political leaders say that's still not enough.

"The Washington myth is 'Let's find another revenue stream.' No! Stop spending so we can roll back a whole lot in Washington," Seton Motley, president of Less Government, said.  "If we went back to pre-Obama era levels, that's $2.7 trillion and that's an awful lot of money."

"By the way, that's also what we're collecting in taxes this year, which means the entire federal debt will go away and that would square everybody so we could start with that," Motley explained.   

More than three-and-a-half months into the year, Americans can finally start keeping the money they earn.

This year, Tax Freedom Day comes five days later because Washington has added still more taxes.

Those taxes include the "fiscal cliff deal, which raised income taxes and payroll taxes; Obamacare, which raised investment taxes and enacted a medical excise tax," the Tax Foundations's Kyle Pomerleau said.

And don't think it's going to get any better because many analysts believe still higher taxes are in your future, even though most Americans don't think Washington needs still more tax money.

So you can expect that Tax Freedom Day will come later…and later…in the years ahead.

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Tracy Winborn and Jennifer Wishon

Tracy Winborn and Jennifer Wishon

CBN News Washington Bureau
