If the Shoe Fits (your budget,) Tax It!

Rarely is taxation so obviously aimed at the poor as is the imported shoe tariff.

Tariffs are primarily imposed on foreign producers of goods to make American producers of similar products more competitive. These tariffs, not surprisingly, are passed on to the consumer of the product. However, in the shoe industry, as The Wall Street Journal points out, with the exception of expensive high-end footwear, nearly all shoes are already manufactured overseas. There is no low end domestic shoe industry left to protect.

So, why then is a dismally out of date taxation policy still in effect when the purported incentive for the taxation is effectively moot, a taxation that punishes the least wealthy of Americans to the tune of $2 billion per year (or about $5 per $15 pair of shoes at Payless or Wal-Mart?)

A coalition of retailers and shoe companies has been trying to build support to repeal the shoe tax, and it already has support from 157 U.S. House Members of both parties. The argument for doing so has gained momentum as import prices have climbed more than 20% so far this year thanks to the weak dollar. We hear that Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel would like to repeal the tariff but feels constrained because under Congressional rules he'd have to raise taxes or cut spending by $2 billion a year to replace the lost revenue. Congress could always save the $2 billion by spending less, but it's politically so much easier to reduce the standard of living of working families by keeping an unjust tax.

Your government has decided that it knows how to spend your earned money better than you do. So, it effectively steals $5 per pair of sneakers from your pocket so that it can waste about half of that money in bureaucratic costs before spending the final $2.50, often on programs designed to assist those that they just stole $5 from.

It is like a thief breaking into a home and then buying better lighting for the homeowner with some of the proceeds. Delicious!

h/t Carpe Diem