Lady Godiva, Tax Protester

If you’re getting upset about all the talk of raising taxes on you and on small businesses to pay for the blowout in the deficit, now at $16 trillion, take comfort in estimable company. It’s not just been the Tea Party who cares about government abuse of your wallet.

Lady Godiva was so upset that her husband Leofric wanted to raise taxes on the citizens of Coventry, England, she agreed to his bet. He said he would back down if Godiva rode naked on a horse through the town. She stood up to it, covered her naked body with her long red hair, and rode on her horse through town.

I'm not suggesting tea partiers should become streakers. But I am saying that throughout history, just two things have proven to test people’s sanity. And it ain’t just rising gas prices. The answer: food-price spikes, and unjust tax hikes.

The point being is this: The recession ended in June of 2009, and the U.S. is only creating on average 139,000 jobs a month this year, versus 153,000 a month last year. The trend is going in the wrong direction.

Could it be Washington, D.C. policies?

The U.S. economy must add 13.3 million jobs over the next three years, or 370,000 jobs each month, to pull the unemployment rate down to 6 %. That requires GDP growth rates at a 4% to 5% pace.

But instead, the White House is focusing on raising taxes as the cure all. Ask yourself this: if tax hikes were the answer, why is California’s unemployment rate at around 12%?

More Americans than ever are paying attention to the debate over the White House’s desire to raise taxes this election season, as the president has made it a campaign issue. More Americans are understanding that tax hikes will not lower the $16 trillion deficit, as the IRS collects a total of about $2.3 trillion annually in taxes from individuals and companies.

Tax hikes that will slam small businesses very hard, the same small businesses responsible for 65% of net job creation in this country over the last 17 years, says the Small Business Administration.

Americans get that what the White House isn’t saying is the name of the game is paying interest on government debt, now at $323 billion and rising as fast as the government spends -- an interest cost that is equal to the budgets of about 19 government agencies.

It doesn’t take a government village to fix this economy. It takes a village of American businesses instead.