Two Roads Diverged: It Makes All the Difference

By
E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy
-
By Da @ Adobe Stock

You can see in America that state governments are choosing between to divergent paths, one of layering on additional taxation, and another of attempting to remove the burden of taxation from residents. The choice, as Robert Frost concluded in his famous poem, makes all the difference.

For evidence of the bifurcated tracks being taken by the states, look to Missouri, where the state government is aiming to reduce its income tax to zero. Gov. Mike Kehoe has been pushing a plan for Missouri to become one of the states in America that demands no income tax from its residents. He posted on X.com:

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Gov. Kehoe and his team have been working on this plan for nearly a year at least:

To the east, Rhode Island is working on another plan entirely. Governor Dan McKee and his colleagues in the state’s legislature have increased spending by 50% since the pandemic, and they have no plans to cut spending. So now they are looking to raise more revenue, and a new 3% tax on the wealthy is the answer he has been given by the state’s public sector unions. McKee included the millionaire tax as a new bracket in his budget proposal, along with other “revenue initiatives.” The budget explains (Your Survival Guy’s emphasis added in bold):

Revenue Initiatives

  • Decoupling from H.R. 1’s research and development tax provision to retain $22.6 million in tax revenue in both Fiscal Years 2026 and 2027.
  • Creating a fourth tax tier at 8.99 percent for income over $1 million starting in tax year 2027. The new tax is projected to generate $67.1 million in Fiscal Year 2027.
  • Launching a tax amnesty program to incentivize delinquent taxpayers to pay outstanding taxes owed to the State. The program is projected to generate $26.3 million in Fiscal Year 2027.

Action Line: Your politicians are either trying to make your life better, or trying to fund their political agendas with your money. If you’re looking for a better America, start your search with Your Survival Guy’s 2025 Super States, and click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, and be among the first to receive my forthcoming 2026 Super States.

The Road Not Taken

By Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

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