Beginning in 2009, a chorus of critics charged that unionized public employees were becoming, in the words of Rush Limbaugh, "parasites of government," dependent subjects that consumed tax dollars and productive labor to subsidize a profligate lifestyle.
While their specific proposals differ, Rubio and Abbott both believe that the federal government has been transformed from a carefully limited entity with "few and defined" powers into an unchecked, unaccountable, and unconstrained leviathan that voraciously consumes tax dollars, exercises powers constitutionally reserved to the states, and menaces individual freedom.
Referring to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, she predicts, "If future taxes are held at the historical average, these three entitlements will consume all tax revenues by 2052".
They consume more tax dollars than any other government activity and rightly so as they have a profound effect on our future.
"Now it's up to us to take ground that consumes tax dollars and turn it into something that creates wealth".
Taxes affect incentives to work or to consume, while taxes, benefits, and expenditures all affect the distribution of income.
Parking doesn't just eat up real estate, it also consumes potential tax revenue.
In the end, the early troubles may prove meaningless; the next few months will be consumed by tax legislation in the House, and there is still time to steady the drive for Medicare legislation.
Many changes have failed to attract sustained attention, in part because they have yet to unfold in the classrooms, and perhaps because New Yorkers have been more consumed by tax increases, the blackout and other matters confronting the mayor over the last year.
A progressive income tax can be restrictive enough to put any desired limit on the ability to consume, if that tax is based on consumption instead of income itself.
