Taxes For Political Leverage

Are taxes used for political leverage by one party over another?

            Taxes are defined as the “sums imposed by a government authority upon persons or property to pay for government services” (Michigan Government, 2007). These taxes are appropriated for various government purposes most of which are for projects that are for the welfare and benefit of the citizens. Nevertheless, these taxes are sometimes used for political gains and a good example of which is how one party used it as leverage over another.

             A party could use taxes to once advantage especially in terms of political competition. Political bickering is most observable in times of election wherein different parties have to compete among each other in order to get the sympathy and vote of the public. As such, they often acquire the approval of the people through the platforms that they have or the list of policies they will implement while they are already holding positions in office. Taxes are among the most controversial issues that most voters take particular attention to. Even though taxes are supposed to be use for projects that the citizens would benefit from, most people still see taxes as amounts of money that would be deducted from their earnings. This is the reason why some parties would advocate that they would reduce the people’s taxes in order to lessen the burden that they experience from it. Doing this political strategy would get the approval of the people and eventually their vote. This situation clearly shows that the party who is going to lessen the taxes would automatically have leverage from other parties.

            Moreover, even if the opposition party would advocate of using the taxes obtain by the people through the implementation of projects that they would benefit from in the long-run, most voters would still go for the party that would make tax smaller. This is due to the fact that most citizens are focus more on the immediate or short-term advantages that they would get. Having smaller amount of taxes would be immediately felt by the citizens because if these would be implemented they would have larger amount of money that is left in their salary.

Being the case, this situation only shows that taxes could be used by a political party to gain advantage over other parties. Taxes could be a political tool that could swing the vote of people. Money matters like taxes are important since it is one of the main basis of people’s survival.

Reference

Michigan Government. (2007). Glossary. Office of the State Budget. Retrieved August 15,

            2008, from http://www.michigan.gov/budget/0,1607,7-157-11460_11541—,00.html.