The Bagel Tax – Doesn’t the Goverment Get Enough of Our Bread?

There's a reason this bagel cutter looks like a guillotine!

Have you ever had the attitude of “things are so crazy, nothing can surprise me now”? Well, just when you thought taxes were crazy enough, I received this morning’s milk-up-my-nose moment when I read that my home state of New York has instituted… get this… a sliced bagel tax. (It’s actually been on the books for years… someone finally decided to enforce it!)  If you buy a whole bagel and walk out the door, no tax. If you dare take a weapon of personal consumption (WPC) against said bagel to put, let’s say, um, cream cheese on it, Cha-Ching, a coin rolls into the Albany coffers. Eight coins, actually Four if you use a nickel.

Heck, here in North Carolina, if I want to grab a bite at the local Subway’s and ask the sandwich mechanic (or whatever they’re called) to toast my sandwich, cha-ching, I’m taxed on that!

In California restaurants, if you order coffee when you sit down, yep… you guessed it: there’s a Tax for that… (Hint: In California, even if you’re going to sit, always order your coffee to go!)

Taxes are your single greatest expense!

Where does it end? It’s this nickel-and-diming of the American public that is finally causing the outrage we are seeing in our communities – the Tea Parties, the tax protests, the conservative small-government ‘extremists’ who are being treated in the press as if we are some revolutionary, radical, anarchist movement. There’s nothing radical about wanting to keep the money you earn. There’s nothing radical about saving for retirement and letting our heirs keep that money (more on that in another post). There’s nothing radical about giving Caesar what Caesar is due and not a penny more!

The Obama Budget Deficit - He's got to pay for it somehow!

One of the turning points in the birth of our nation involved the oppressive and unfair taxation of another consumable product – Tea. Our fledgling populace knew oppression when they saw it and refused to give in. That was the dawn of what would be called “The American Spirit.”

Tell Albany What You Think:

Here’s a suggestion to my New York Brethren: Go buy a bagel (uncut, to avoid the tax!) and run down to your local government-operated Post Office and put the bagel, a tea bag, and a post-it-note in a Priority Box saying “Repeal the bagel tax!” and sign your name with your city & state. The boxes are free! (well, they’re not free… you’ve already paid for them… with your taxes!)

Regarding the tea, send a used tea bag to represent the “leftovers” the government expects us taxpayers to live off of after they charge us for our bagels, our gasoline, our telephone calls, our emails, yada yada… ad infinitum.. (Remember, only half of us Americans are paying taxes… the rest are benefiting from our earnings!)

Think I’ll head over to the Bagel Bin… after I finish my Green Tea.

America, What Say ye?