The word “earnings” is now inoperative.

You do know how politicians like to change words around .. especially Democrats.  In government terms, “spending” has now become “investing.”  A “tax” is actually a “penalty.”  But there’s a new word out there …. And this is a word-change the GOP should embrace.  Your “earnings” are now your “allowance.”  That’s right … allowance.

I don’t know, do parent’s still do the allowance thing?  Mine lasted through college.  I would get a $5 bill in the mail from my father every week when I was in college.  But what was your allowance based on?  For most kids it was behavior.  You do what your parents told you to do – you behaved in a certain way – and you got your full allowance.  Transgressions – you ring your brother’s bell with a shot putt, or too much vermouth in your mother’s martini -- and there’s a penalty to pay.  Your allowance would be cut back.

Well .. here we are my friends!  The government, largely acting in loco parentis, tells you how you must behave – buy health insurance – and if you don’t do what daddy tells you to do you get your allowance cut.  You pay a penalty (or, according to law, a “tax.”)

The government used to use its taxing authority for pretty much one thing – to raise the revenue needed for the necessary and proper operations of government.  Now we have the Supreme Court of the United States giving its approval to the use of the taxing authority to control behavior – with no apparent limitations on the types of behavior to be regulated.

Now I know .. there are various law regulating behavior on the books at all levels of government.  Failure to maintain your property --- allowing the grass to grow knee high – can result in a fine.  But in every case I can think of those fines or penalties can only be assessed under some due process proceeding, and none of them are assessed simply by