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by alistairSH 1017 days ago
Reagan believed paying taxes should hurt - the more painful to pay, the more the public would want to do away with taxes. Reagan did soften his stance while in the White House, but the GOP never got on board, even to this day.
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"As Ronald Reagan once put it, “Taxes should hurt.” He meant that when paying the taxes you owe is a painful process, you are very aware that government is taking your money. Then the governor of California, he was resisting the introduction of state-tax withholding, which, he felt, made it too easy for government to take money and too easy for taxpayers to miss what was happening."

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/04/american-t...

So basically collective-punishment masquerading as informed-consent.
Weirdly one of few uses cases of consent they actually care about