Tax free

Americans once enjoyed a measure of solidarity on Tax Day. Co-workers and neighbors shared with each other the pain of sending their hard-earned dollars into the black hole that is the federal Treasury.

Exact numbers didn't need to be disclosed. Everyone could take some comfort that everyone else was at least paying something in income taxes to help cover Washington's bills. Everyone had a stake in the government, which made the government answer to everyone.

Today, more than ever, April 15 is overrated as a civic milestone. Today, it is a symbol of the country's divisions and the social engineering via tax policy carried out by members of Congress.

That's because Tax Day is now payday for tens of millions of Americans, and a day of no fiscal consequence for tens of millions more.

For the tax year 2009, barely half of U.S. households will actually pay income taxes, according to projections by the Tax Policy Center. About 47 percent will have no income tax liability at all, with 40 percent receiving so many deductions, exemptions and tax credits that the federal government actually sends them checks instead of the other way around.

The Democratic Congress and President Barack Obama have taken it upon themselves to worsen the decades-long trend of shifting the burden of funding government services -- which overwhelmingly benefit the unproductive lower classes -- onto the country's productive workers. Tax credits for the lower and middle classes have grown to the point that a working couple with two children and a combined household income of $50,000 will, at worst, owe no income taxes in 2009, according to an analysis by Deloitte Tax.

And when people get something for nothing, they have every incentive to continue voting to forward the bills for their goodies to someone else. For them, government assistance is a right, which helps explain the increasing number of anecdotes -- from doctor's offices and insurance companies -- about callers asking where to sign up for their new, "free" health care.

That's maddening for the dwindling taxpaying majority, especially those who make just enough to have to pay income taxes. For if their sentiments are tilted in the wrong direction and they demand to join the freeloading crowd, how soon before only 40 percent have to pay? How long before Tax Day is a headache for only 30 percent?

The top 10 percent of households already pay 73 percent of all income taxes collected by Washington. They can always pay more, right?