I'm no Rick Santelli, but eight years ago I wrote my own little rant decrying the culture of taxation that's taken hold in America. Since today is Tax Day, I thought it'd be worth reprinting in full:

March 8, 2001
Do The Math: Americans Need Tax Relief
By Tom Bevan

The current debate on Capitol Hill over whether or not we can "afford" a federal income tax cut obscures a much greater truth: we live in a tax culture. Americans are under assault every single day by an army of tiny, unseen taxes - and they hardly even know it. Don't take my word for it, do the math yourself.

Take a look at your phone bill. Mine has nine different taxes attached, everything from 63 cents per month for "state and municipal infrastructure maintenance fees" to 28 cents for a "number portability fee." I'm not sure what any of these taxes are for, who voted for them or when they started showing up on my bill, but I do know they accounted for seven percent of my total phone bill this month.

Next try your gas bill. Mine, which thanks to Mr. Clinton's brilliant energy policy over the last 8 years was $326 dollars this month, has a $9.45 assessment under the heading of "customer charge" and a whopping $24.33 for a "municipal utility tax." More than 12 percent of the total bill was in taxes and fees.

You get the point. The average American is swimming in government taxes. Property taxes, sales taxes, fuel taxes, state income taxes. There is precious little we can do in America today without incurring some sort of taxation.

This isn't some high-brow debate over multimillionaires and the estate tax, the taxes I'm talking about are regressive. Everyone who has a phone, heats their apartment or drives a car gets charged the same amount whether they make five dollars a year or five million.

The Federation of Tax Administrators (an organization whose stated mission is to make the taking of money from American citizens a more efficient process) reports that the 50 states collected some $500 billion in tax revenue in 1999. So, in addition to the federal income withholding, Social Security and Medicare taxes that came straight out of your paycheck every two weeks, each state collected an average of $1,835 per person of additional tax revenue during the course of the year. The FTA estimates this is roughly equivalent to 6.8% of personal income.

For a country whose very existence is a product of rebelling against overtaxation, it's disturbing to see how fully taxes have taken hold in America - and how completely the public has acquiesced to them. Even now, as Americans work hard (harder than any other nation on Earth, according to numerous surveys) and surpluses abound at the local and federal levels, trying to get even minimal tax relief has created a gigantic struggle.

Unfortunately, the slow, upward march of taxes in America, especially the insidious little ones lurking just under most people's radar screens, is bound to continue until there is a radical transformation in the way Americans think about taxes. Only when we stop approaching taxes as pure statistics, dollar figures and percentages and start looking at the full picture of taxation in America as a moral issue grounded in basic freedom will any real tax reform be possible.

Former Pennsylvania Rep. Pat Toomey (R) announced this morning that he will, in fact, run for Senate against Arlen Specter. Toomey recently resigned from his post as president of Club for Growth, a limited government, anti-tax organization.

From his statement: "For thirty years Senator Specter has consistently voted for increased government spending and a liberal agenda on social, labor, immigration and national security policies. In recent months, Senator Specter voted in favor of the unprecedented Wall Street and auto company bailouts and the massive 'stimulus' spending bill. Senator Specter is on the wrong side of these critical issues and Pennsylvanians will pay the price."

A new Quinnipiac poll (April 6 – 13, 1332 RV, +/- 2.7%) finds Gov. Charlie Crist (R) with a sky-high approval rating (66%), including among Democrats (66%) and independents (68%).

"Gov. Crist's approval rating remains not just lofty but lofty across the board," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "In fact his disapproval among Republicans, although small, is worse than his disapproval from Democrats and independent voters. He is also the unusual politician who has no gender gap."

A slightly lower number (58%) feel Crist deserves to be re-elected, and he leads 47%-27% over a generic Dem candidate. While Dems overwhelmingly approve of the way Crist handles his job, most Dems stick with their party candidate in an election.

Should Crist run for Senate, two potential candidates for governor both enjoy bipartisan job approval ratings, as Crist does. Republican Atty. Gen. Bill McCollum has a 48%/18% approval rating, while State CFO Alex Sink has a 33%/22% rating.

Tomorrow is Tax Day, and conservatives across the country are planning "Tea Parties," intended to be grass-roots "revolts" against the Obama administration's economic policies thus far. Though organized independent of the Republican Party, a number of officeholders and candidates are planning to attend local events.

At the White House, Robert Gibbs said that he's not sure if President Obama is aware of the planned demonstrations. He will, however, mark the day with a White House event "to signal the important steps in the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment plan that cut taxes for 95 percent of working families in America," Gibbs said.

"We'll use tomorrow to highlight individual instances and families that have seen their taxes cut," he said. "Americans will see more money into their pockets as a direct result of the making work pay tax cut that the president both campaigned on and passed through Congress."

The press secretary said he did not believe the White House would be monitoring the events tomorrow.

Rick Newman produces a list of seven.  I don't know about you, but I find myself partial to Ford these days, precisely because they did not take any government bailout money.

Another left over thought from the weekend, revived by reading Condi Rice's op-ed on the Masters. Only two people had three rounds in the 60's at Augusta this year. One of them, Angel Cabrera, won the tournament.

The other was Sean O'Hair, who blew up with a 76 on Friday and finished tied for tenth place. Had O'Hair shot 70 even par that day, he would have finished at 13 under - one shot ahead of Cabrera.

Scott Murphy (D) now holds a 56-vote lead in the 20th District special election, according to the latest New York State Board of Elections tally.

Murphy began the day with a 25-vote lead, which increased "after two friendly counties sent in additional absentee totals Tuesday morning," The Hill reports.

Saratoga, the district's largest county, still has not reported any absentee numbers. Jim Tedisco (R) won 54% of the county's votes on election day.

A new CNN/Opinion Research survey (April 3-5, 1023 A, +/- 3%) finds that more than twice as many Americans think President Obama (58%) has a clear plan forward on the economy compared to Republicans in Congress (24%).

On bipartisanship, 62% say Obama is doing enough to cooperate with Republicans in Congress, down 12 points since February. Just 37% say Republicans in Congress are doing enough to cooperate with Obama.

"Obama's rating on bipartisanship has gone down, but that hasn't helped the GOP. When a Democratic president gets zero votes from the opposition, it's something that the public notices," CNN polling director Keating Holland said about the President's budget.

The survey also finds 49% think that the U.S. would be better off if Democrats kept control of Congress, down 7 points since January. Comparatively, 34% say the country would be better off if Republicans controlled the Capitol, up 3 points since January.

A bit of sad local news: Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell has breast cancer.

Question: is it wise for Bob Shrum, who holds the all time record for futility in helping Democratic presidential candidates win the White House, to be 1) knocking other people about their reputations, and 2) mocking Republicans as being deluded and devoid of ideas for having lost two consecutive elections?