Ruthless Extortion

Yesterday’s Albuquerque Journal (subscription required) reported a record windfall in state tax revenue. There are lots of ideas about what to do with the money: spend it on “the kids,” give it back to the people in a rebate, reduce tax rates, etc.
Conspicuously absent is the sort of sentiment expressed by Grover Cleveland when he presided over record surpluses during his first presidential term:
“When more of the people’s sustenance is exacted through the form of taxation than is necessary to meet the just obligations of government and expenses of its economical administration, such exaction becomes ruthless extortion and a violation of the fundamental principles of free government.”