When Congressmen Duncan Hunter and Darrell Issa voted to give the concrete industry the coercive power to tax as they did this week, only a few days removed from Trump’s mandate to bring reform, we accomplished three things despite our good intentions.
1. We violate free markets.
We are protecting an oversized industry that Americans are valuing less, one that is unable to compete on it’s own. Indeed if it was a thriving industry it would not be necessary to revert to crony capitalism to sustain it.
2. We destroy jobs.
The millions of dollars taken by the new tax on concrete are no longer going to be in the individual’s pocket to purchase goods and services at other local businesses. This is basically a labor transfer from healthy businesses without connections in Washington to a less healthy business with connections in Washington. Labor outside the concrete industry will lose jobs in direct correlation to where Congress requires the new tax be paid. What basically happened is 188 Republican Congressmen (that’s 8 out of 10 Congressional Republicans) used their monopoly on power to tell 330 million Americans what businesses our nation should and shouldn’t have.
3. We decrease happiness.
Happiness is a function of our ability to pursue it. Happiness requires freedom and property. Slaves aren’t typically models of what we would refer to as “happy” people. There is a reason for this. They lack freedom and property to pursue it. Whether we find happiness in going to a movie or giving to a charity it cannot be pursued without the dollar required to do so. Every dollar taken by this new tax is a dollar we no longer have to spend on what we value and what makes us happy.
This is why constitutionally limited government is so important to making America great again. Every expansion of government directly impacts our ability to pursue happiness.
If the GOP sincerely desires to be a party responsible for bringing happiness to San Diego families, then those voting Republican, elected to the San Diego County Republican Central Committee and elected to office must get with the program and begin holding each other accountable.
I am attempting to do my part and hope my friends in the Party will do the same. We must begin locally. I know of no other way to make America great again.
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Eric Andersen is a member of the Central Committee of the San Diego County Republican Party and current Chair and Co-Founder of the Republican Liberty Caucus of San Diego County. He is a Co-Founder of im2moro.com, former Rock Church Citizen of the Year and former Caucus Chair for the 71st Assembly District.