Tax-Free Weekend Puts absurdity of the Nanny-State on Display

The state's annual "tax-free weekend" is now in full swing with the parking lots of area malls and Wal-Marts packed. But not everything is exempt from sales tax and the list can be quite confusing. Looking over the lists of what is tax-exempt and what is not, I can only conclude the list was produced in Boston or somewhere. It certainly could not have come from Austin:

• Belts with attached buckles are exempt, but a belt buckle by itself is not. What self-respecting Texan would dream of going back to school without a big shiny belt buckle?
• Tennis shoes are exempt, bowling shoes are not. This is a clear case of class-discrimination. Buffy can get a good deal on shoes to where to country club whereas Billy Bob as to fork over sales tax on a new pair of shoes to where bowling?.
• Football jerseys are tax-exempt, but not football helmets. As one who has been frequently accused of not wearing my helmut during my football playing days, this angers me. Whut 'bout the childlin'? Don't they deserve all the protection that they can get?
• Dresses are exempt from taxes, but a purse to match is taxable. I've been married for over 20 years, 15 of them happily. If there is one thing I've learned about women, it's that whenever they get a new dress, they have to have a purse to match.
  

Aside from the absurdity of the list is the absurdity of the entire premise that big government should be allowed to tell us what we should and shouldn't buy. If sales taxes are a hardship on families trying to send the kids back to school, then sales taxes are too high. Period.

Here is Cowtown, we struggle with one of the highest sales tax rates in the country. Let's cut the sales tax for all citizens, not just those that meekly do as they are told and buy when and what they are supposed to.