Taxing Our Patience

In 1886 Wlliam Jennings Bryan said, "When I find a man who is not willing to bear his share of the burdens of the government which protects him, I find a man who is unworthy to enjoy the blessings of a government like ours." What would he have to say today about a nation whose spending has gone wild while the promise to cut taxes has become an essential part of every politico's campaign rhetoric? It was Benjamin Franklin who, in a 1789 letter wrote that "nothing is certain but death and taxes," but he probably purloined it from Daniel Defoe. The conflation of the two, however, has always bothered me. After all, death is a one-time deal.