Leftists love making up strawman scenarios in order to guilt people into supporting their positions. For instance, they demand that pro-lifers pay for every baby, from cradle to grave, or they're not really pro-life.
In fairness, you can hardly blame them. For a long time, this tactic worked on far too many people. Maybe not true conservatives (like our Twitchy readers), but with people in the middle who just want to be seen as kind and compassionate, and don't like confrontation.
It is becoming very clear, however, that this playbook isn't working anymore. People have SEEN what the left does with more money and more power and no one likes it even a little bit. Just take a look at Joe Biden's basement-dwelling approval ratings for proof of that.
But they still like to try. This weekend, one leftist, Barbara Janik, decided to play the game with taxes. We don't know who Janik is (she says she wrote a book about Osama bin Laden, but we've never heard of it). But she DOES call herself a 'resister' and lists her 'preferred' pronouns, so it's easy to conclude that her question was not coming from a place of honest inquiry. Take a look:
Are you willing to pay more taxes so other people can have food and heathcare?
— Barbara K. Janik 💙 (@BarbaraKJanik) May 24, 2024
Quick tip, Babs: If you want to play the compassion gaslighting game, don't bring taxes into it. People HATE paying taxes, and not just conservatives.
But when you add in the myth that increased taxes will help feed everyone or give everyone medical care? Yeah, no one is buying that nonsense. We know too well what the government does with OUR money.
Thankfully, thousands of people on Twitter were on hand to tell Janik what she could do with her tax idea. Since Twitchy is a family site, we didn't include any tweets that simply told Janik -- in no uncertain terms -- to f*** off. (And there were tons of those.)
But here are some equally definitive responses to her question.
This question is absolutely ridiculous. I’m not willing to pay more taxes into a corrupt government system. The system is broken. We’re spending ourselves into insolvency.
— Check One Two 🎙 (@hcasan0va) May 24, 2024
The federal government took in more than $4.4 TRILLION in taxes in 2023. We do not have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem. And you don't fix a spending problem by giving the government more money to spend.
This question is absolutely ridiculous. I’m not willing to pay more taxes into a corrupt government system. The system is broken. We’re spending ourselves into insolvency.
— Check One Two 🎙 (@hcasan0va) May 24, 2024
We ALL pay far too much (those of us who pay at all, that is).
How about we end 95% of our foreign aid and spend that on Americans.
— Lady Hecate ⚫️ (@hecate40) May 25, 2024
No. Because taxes get redistributed to other programs before it ever reaches anyone.
— DangerZone (@HighwayToTheDZ) May 26, 2024
BINGO. To illustrate that point, here are some examples of what the federal government spends our tax money on:
“Are you willing to pay more taxes so other people can have food and healthcare?”
— Ashley St. Clair (@stclairashley) May 25, 2024
The problem is not that we aren’t taxed enough— it’s that our government lights cash on fire
Here is some absurd garbage your US taxes paid for:
•$1.5 Million studying the effects of yoga on… https://t.co/SVm4mZHxK6
Here is the full list from that tweet:
•$1.5 Million studying the effects of yoga on goats
•$1.7 billion maintaining empty buildings
•$5 million on a campaign to promote an alternative music scene to get hipsters to stop smoking
•$2 million to create an internship program that resulted in the hiring of one full-time employee at the Department of agriculture
•In 2021 alone, the government managed to misplace $281 billion in payments
•$1 million studying the effects of music on dairy cows
•$1.7 million to study the effects of alcohol on fish
Rand Paul just had a heart attack looking at that list. And that's just a few examples.
Even in areas where the federal government IS supposed to be spending tax money, it is replete with waste, fraud, and abuse. Here is our Department of Defense, for example:
No. Especially not when our government doesn't even know where our tax dollars went. https://t.co/1DmRnuyD1B pic.twitter.com/VnVTBZpwmp
— Nuclear Herbs (@NuclearHerbs) May 26, 2024
OOF. Sixty-three percent. That is insane.
No, I pay enough when 40% of my income goes towards taxes as it is.
— Andrew Young - TANSTAAFL Curmudgeon (@NucMM1retired) May 26, 2024
You want to pay more Babs? Just write a check of your money to the government or better yet to a charity. https://t.co/bDlWTmgLqB
No I'm not. There will never be enough taxes, because the government is corrupt and incompetent. I would and do give money to organizations like the Salvation Army, who are ultra efficient in spending money to do good https://t.co/dURWG8Ho9V
— Jon Fraser (@JonFraserTF) May 24, 2024
Private organizations are FAR more efficient in helping those in need than the government ever was, is, or will be.
People like Janik will say conservatives are heartless, of course, which is patently false.
No.
— Laura W. (@BumpstockBarbie) May 26, 2024
What I am willing to do is help people myself. The government is not the only solution to this problem, and if we can get big-government leftists to understand that and help us help people ourselves, we’d see a change. https://t.co/6SzeKDRLC2
What she said. Times 1,000.
Noted libertarian and pointer-outer of fraud Penn Gillette says it even more clearly:
— Laura W. (@BumpstockBarbie) May 26, 2024
'There is great joy in helping people, but no joy in doing it at gunpoint.'
Etch that in stone and put it on display in front of the IRS headquarters.
No.
— 𝓐𝓵𝓵𝓮𝓷 𝓡𝓪𝔂 42 (@2CynicAl65) May 26, 2024
D.C. already pisses the fruits of my labor away like an unsupervised child in a candy store.
The last thing they need is more money.
They can reallocate what they've already stolen. https://t.co/vM1Ws78rBI
At least most kids, if they spend too much in a candy store, can be counted on to eat or share all of the candy they buy. The government doesn't even do that much.
No but I’d be willing to reallocate wasteful spending, sweetheart deals with federal tax dollars, green energy subsidies and other useless things to feed people and give them healthcare. Have we looked into that? https://t.co/47F7DtO01K
— Matt Finkes (@MattFinkes) May 26, 2024
Well, THERE'S an idea. But don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen. Ever.
Just take the taxes I give to the feds and give it to my state instead. https://t.co/qFt2TKAo5n
— Montana Department of Organic Flammability (@MontanaDOOF) May 26, 2024
Another good suggestion, but it depends on the state. California, for example, is currently $1.6 trillion in debt and runs an annual deficit of anywhere between $30 to $70 billion. They don't deserve more of our tax money and more than the feds do.
No. You get no more money until you do a better job with the money you already take from me. https://t.co/aOg1pYURoP
— Heather B (@BoulwareH2) May 25, 2024
It's difficult to imagine government agencies doing any better when the people in charge of holding the federal government accountable work for ... the federal government.
https://t.co/4J8QPvmyfR pic.twitter.com/DxGlPG18gQ
— Beard and Circus (@Shooter_ptpx01) May 26, 2024
Say it louder, Chad. So Janik and everyone like her can hear you.
I am not paying your food bill https://t.co/pTKZlVaLI4 pic.twitter.com/Gk2ZVeeKmT
— BowTiedYukon (@BowTiedYukon) May 25, 2024
OUCH. Also ... LOL.
This is the propaganda used on suburban women in order to march us into Marxist tyranny.
— USA=Liberty (@LibertasWins) May 25, 2024
Know thy enemy & thy enemy’s tactics. https://t.co/HT6tprBtB0
As we noted at the beginning of this article, the left's game has been completely exposed, especially during the Obama and Biden administrations. No one is buying what they're selling.
If everyone paid less in taxes, it would be much easier for everyone to have food and health care. https://t.co/IQJKQuDE13
— J.E. Dyer ☘️ (@OptimisticCon) May 25, 2024
There it is in a nutshell. As Ronald Reagan once said, 'The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help.'
The government -- especially when it is as bloated and unaccountable as the U.S. federal government -- is NEVER the solution. It is always the problem. And, even worse, when the government DOES create more problems for people, the only solution they ever offer is ... more government.
No thanks.
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