Why is Collecting Taxes Like Plucking a Goose?

An item about the Rochester City Council's decision not to collect a franchise fee from the utility company that supplies natural gas to Rochester led to a wider discussion on taxes during Friday's Rochester Today show with Tom Ostrom and Andy Brownell on KROC-AM.

One of the callers to the program provided a wonderful analogy that compared the collection of taxes to plucking a goose. He related how his father was a prominent businessman in a small Iowa town and once told him that collecting taxes is like plucking a goose..."the goal is pull out the maximum amount of feathers with the minimum amount of hissing."

The show also covered President Obama's second to last State of the Union Address. Tom took issue with an MSNBC commentator's criticism of Iowa Senator Jodi Earnst, who delivered the Republican's response to the speech. He was upset because the commentator dismissed the freshman Senator for being "just a pig farmer."

Of course, the real issue that needed discussion was why Tom would choose to watch MSNBC in the first place!

Listen to the show by clicking on the play button below.