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The Corporate-Tax Smoke Screen

July 3rd, 2009 |

Walking in a smoke screen

One of the definitions of the phrase “smoke screen” is : [noun] an action intended to conceal or confuse or obscure. In military terms it’s a way of preventing the other side from precisely seeing your movements in time to take action. I couldn’t find the exact origin of the phrase, but I discovered references to it that predate World War I.

In time of war we have to believe a smoke screen is a wonderful tool to reach an end goal. It’s used when few other options still exist and is, frankly, easily implemented. However, in regard to the creation of laws by politicians, the smoke screen tactic should be viewed as unethical. In our long political history as a nation we can find only a few examples of this practice prior to World War I. Perhaps it was the advent of modern communications that seduced law makers to use smoke screens to enact their agendas because in the light of a clear battle field their plans would be shot down.

I can cite a number of occasions that the smoke screen was used to enact laws that ended up being very unpopular once the smoke cleared. By then, the challenge to repeal a law was even more difficult.

The entire discussion of federal income tax is one such occasion. One side of the political aisle claimed it was a way to make the wealthy pay to help the poor, that the taxation would never be applied to the middle and lower class. In point of fact, federal income tax has never been fully ratified by two thirds majority of the states, yet, here we have it. The reality is that once adopted we all were required to pay taxes on our income. It took a bit of time to trickle down, but no one can deny this fact.

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