It's pretty arrogant to say people who "hate taxes" hate them because they don't understand the potential benefits.

If there were no corruption in the world and every government employee was extremely hard working I'd be happy to give over 100% of my paycheck to the government in exchange for those awesome services providing for my every need.

If there is 100% corruption and sloth, I want to give 0% of my income to the government since it doesn't support anything that benefits me.

Obviously the truth lies in the middle between those two extremes. There is fraud and corruption and laziness and rent seeking - so you need to never let any entity concentrate too much power. Once you concentrate power and revenue streams, corruption will shortly follow. No matter the human institution.

And yep, I strongly support "user" taxes. Not so much vice taxes like this, but I see them far more moral and ethical than taxing labor.

I also would make a nod towards the "American's are not lightly taxed" argument as well. If you make any sort of middle class to upper middle class money you will see roughly 50% of your paycheck evaporate before you see it once you include your entire tax load of federal income, fica, state income, real estate, sales tax, etc. I certainly understand that reasonable minds can disagree as to the appropriate amount for taxes - but I'm definitely making the argument working half the year for the government (of which the majority is simply distributing your income to someone else as-is) is excessive and anti-freedom.

That said, I understand the Government needs revenue - I simply think it's already excessive and no one is talking about who the people are in this country who actually carry the high tax load. It's just not sustainable.