In a recent column for American Thinker, Jay Davidson poses a question that often gets lost in the noise of political debate: where does the money for government spending actually come from? His answer is blunt — every dollar politicians spend is a dollar taken from a private citizen.
Davidson uses tariffs as a primary example, though he notes that taxes and fees follow the same logic. He argues that corporations don’t shoulder the cost of tariffs; they simply pass those costs along to consumers in the form of higher prices. The real payer, he says, is the American family at the checkout counter or the manufacturer buying imported components.
The Hidden Tax on Consumers
The column points to a specific trend: customs duties were the federal government’s fastest-growing source of revenue through 2025, largely due to tariffs imposed under the Trump administration. Notably, tariffs levied under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) accounted for roughly half of those collections.
For Davidson, this is not just an economic observation but a philosophical one. He frames tariffs, taxes, and fees as a direct transfer of wealth from the earner to the state, and he questions whether that transfer aligns with the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
“All federal income generation — taxes, fees, tariffs, debt — is used by members of the federal government to facilitate government spending,” he writes. “Just how effective has that spending been?”
A Conservative Critique of Both Parties
Davidson’s critique extends beyond the usual partisan lines. He laments that the Republican Party of his youth would have recoiled at the current philosophy of more taxation, more spending, and more government intervention. Yet he sees both major parties embracing what he calls a “tax-and-spend mentality.”
While acknowledging that some Republicans object to this trend, he argues the majority do not. “While the Rs stumble in confusion, the Ds are going socialist and communist,” he writes, invoking a sense of lost moderation and independence that he attributes to the nation’s founders.
The column taps into a long-standing conservative argument about the nature of government revenue: that it is never free, never neutral, and always comes out of someone’s pocket — whether through direct taxation, hidden tariffs, or the future burden of debt.
Spending, Debt, and the Rights of Citizens
Davidson extends his argument to federal debt, asserting that even money borrowed by the government is ultimately paid for by citizens. He makes the case that government is incapable of generating wealth on its own; it subsists by taking.
He ties this to a broader claim about individual rights. “We citizens have three rights, and only three: life, liberty and ownership of property,” he writes. “All taxes, fees, and tariffs take from the earner and funnel the takings into a highly inefficient government bureaucracy.”
In his view, every law, rule, and regulation is a form of control by the government over the individual — and the irony is that citizens fund that control through their own labor.
A Call for Less Government, Not Anarchy
Davidson is careful to clarify that he is not advocating for anarchy. Instead, he calls for a return to constitutional principles and a reduction in the scope of federal power. “This is a plea to adhere to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution,” he writes. “We are all independent and sovereign beings endowed by our creator with three inalienable rights.”
The column is a reminder that the debate over government spending is not just about budgets and deficits — it’s about who bears the cost and whether that cost is justified. In an era of rising tariff revenue and expanding federal programs, Davidson’s central question remains relevant: whose money is it, really?
Source: www.americanthinker.com — https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/08/where-all-government-spending-comes-from/