Your Tax dollars and your Future at work

March 17, 2006 @ 10:04 am

2.77 Trillion dollar budget passed. Think about that number for a minute. 2.8 Trillion sounds like such a nice and cozy number, but that's 2,800 BILLION.

Talk about selling out America!

And where is it going? All that money, is it making your life better? I don't think so…

Are you seeing any improvements in your community? Are your kids getting better education? Do you feel safer in your community? Are your roads in good order? Are there any public works program that make your life better? Are you feeling more secure about retirement? About medical benefits in the future? I don't think so. I doubt it… So aren't you glad you paid more than a third of your income ($20,000? $50,000? $100,000?) to support the cause? Where did your tax dollars go? Think about that nice big check you wrote Uncle Sam and what you're getting for it.

2.8 Trillion of spending. In the meantime there's 8.2 Trillion dollars of national debt - a debt we are sticking to the future – lets deal with it later.

If you look at where the debt is going there are 3 big areas: Health Care and Defense and interest on our debt. Defense alone is more than all the rest combined. And health care is even worse and keep in mind that's covering only those that qualify for gov't assisted health care. Not surprising thanks to the way the congress has sold out to the medical and pharmaceutical industry.

Think about it – is your government working in your interest? Vote out the incumbent bastards that are jeopardizing all of our futures by continuing to sell out and bankrupt this country with corporate corruption and irresponsible spending. And that goes for both sides of the limited political spectrum this country 'enjoys'.

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re: Your Tax dollars and your Future at work
by rich March 17, 2006 @ 10:23 am

Could not agree more Rick.

Worryingly, even the 1/3rd of our income we pay in tax, does not come anywhere close to meeting government's insatiable desire for cash, hence all this borrowing.

All this government spending is welfare, whether aimed at actual 'welfare' recipients such as the elderly and sick, or companies like Halliburton. Big government is involved in wealth redistribution on a massive scale.

$300M for a bridge in Alaska?

$35BN for a phoney war on drugs? Who benefits from that apart from law enforcement employees?

???$$ BNs War in Iraq - who benefits from that apart from the defense industry, CIA, NSA, etc?

$140,000 (each) to recruit and train TSA screeners who miss 100% of improvised IEDs attempted to be smuggled aboard planes by federal investigators?

the list goes on and on

For a more thoughtful analysis look here:

http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2006/tst031306.htm

re: Your Tax dollars and your Future at work
by Steve from Pleasant Hill March 17, 2006 @ 10:24 am

Whoa dude! Don't even get me started, ooops, too late!

We Americans ignore the obvious as long as we have HDTV and a 12 pack of Bud. We think it's Right vs. Left, or Dem. vs. Rep., when it's really "where did our country go while we were asleep at the freaking wheel?".

Haven't we seen enough countries become "1984" to not notice it here? Either we are adept at voting buffoons into office year after year, or the game is fixed. We SHOULD vote out at least 75% of congress. We SHOULD vote in people who are honest, who've had to mangage a budget, a family, a hardship. The problem is, how to get enough votes for ONE person so that person is voted in.

Why did America grow so quickly and accomplish so much in the first 200 years? One reason is that government was smaller and it left the people alone to do their thing. Lest we forget, the Federal Government by definition is to do ONLY those things that the United States (not the F$*&*#$ "homeland") don't want to do -- militia, coin money, etc. The Federal Government is to be a SERVANT of the States.

How do we get back to the US Constitution, in practice? Change out Congress. Fire their asses if they do anything at cross purposes to the Constitution. Make it a felony to pass a law that is at cross purposes to the Constitution. Put officials in jail for years who do anything at cross purposes to the Constitution.

Taxes, money? The Fed Reserve is a private corporation, just like the Bank of England. The goal of central banks everywhere is to have nations (and therefore you and me) in their debt. Fiat money; worthless paper.

We need to fight the temptation to give up. Some of us should spend a year trying to get one sane person in our Congressional District elected. But if history repeats we will not wake up until it's time for another Revolution, and perhaps Thomas Jefferson was right when he suggested it should happen about every 75 years.

re: Your Tax dollars and your Future at work
by Bertrand Le Roy March 17, 2006 @ 10:26 am

"Defense"? What do you mean by that?

re: Your Tax dollars and your Future at work
by sven March 17, 2006 @ 10:41 am

Shut up and stick to code

re: Your Tax dollars and your Future at work
by Rick Strahl March 17, 2006 @ 10:43 am

Bertrand,

Defense = Military

ah you foreigners <g>. Oh, never mind I'm one too... So I can't vote either - all I can do is bitch, since I have to live with the law of the land.

re: Your Tax dollars and your Future at work
by Oskar Austegard March 17, 2006 @ 11:17 am

Ah, yet another rant based solely on some really large numbers. I'm not going to comment about what the government is spending/wasting our money on - just give some needed context to your numbers:

Yes - our deficits are worrying, but put in a historical context they're not obscenely large, in percentage terms: http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/TaxFacts/Tfdb/TFTemplate.cfm?DocID=199&Topic2id=20&Topic3id=23

As for taxes, unless you count local taxes, or you are making an obscene amount of money then your taxes are way below 33%: http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/TaxFacts/Tfdb/TFTemplate.cfm?DocID=446&Topic2id=20&Topic3id=22

Of course if you count ALL taxes - paid for by both you and your employer, and including consumption taxes, then you're getting closer to 40%:
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/TaxFacts/TFDB/TFTemplate.cfm?Docid=108&Topic2id=95

But as you can see, compared to taxes in Europe, US taxes are quite low. I'm not sure if I'd want to trade additional government spending for additional unemployment (http://www.demographia.com/db-2003intlunem.htm) and lower GDP (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html).

And before anyone rants about my presentation of the facts above: BOCTAOE - in this case Norway and Luxembourg. But here we're talking about ridiculous quantities of oil and financial institutions per capita.

re: Your Tax dollars and your Future at work
by Steve from Pleasant Hill March 17, 2006 @ 11:49 am

Rick, you might regret this post :)

To quote Jack Nicholson in "Easy Rider", "...this used to be a hell of a country."

If you are under 25 or weren't raised here, it may be hard to understand. I'm old enough to remember the marches and freedoms of the '60s and early '70s.

Not to be offensive, but the taxes, government control of beliefs, and regimentation enforced upon individuals in European (and other) countries are what helped drive people here. So much has changed in the past 15 years even, it is alarming.

Do you *really* believe that the government knows what's best for you, and *really* cares?

We allow tax money to be spent where it shouldn't, we accept lower quality and standards without thinking, we are forced to accept the Government's version of facts or we are a 'terrorist', etc. We may not be able to do much but we can still try to think and act free. We can stop being sheep.

re: Your Tax dollars and your Future at work
by Rick Strahl March 17, 2006 @ 11:49 am

Actually if you count all the taxes you're paying it's getting close to 50%. Lessee here I pay somewhere around 35% in real taxes between federal and state taxes.

Then add in sales tax or 'general excise tax' here in Hawaii, add to that taxes levied on things like gas (which are 35% or more). In other states that's higher yet, but that easily puts you over 40%.

But taxes are one thing. It's what those taxes buy you or the community at large. You get very little in return for your tax dollars. If you look at how taxes the world that matters to you or the people that you know and how they serve you - can you point at the things your taxes are buying?

In European countries there's much more social backup that actually might help you should you fall on hard times. From better health care that is not economically in the stratosphere, to reasonable unemployment support.

And lets not even talk about the sorry state of education in the Unites States and the morons that get churned out from public education. This is in direct correlation to the lack of spending for a) incentive to get good teachers and b) provide adequate educational support.

Taxes are a necessary evil to spread the wealth of a nation, but it sure seems like here we're spreading that money into the wrong directions and certainly not for the good of the society as a whole.

re: Your Tax dollars and your Future at work
by Rick Strahl March 17, 2006 @ 12:04 pm

Steve,

I came here when I was 14 so I consider myself more less as having grown up here.

Does government know best? No, but it's ridiculous to think that a society could run without it. <s>

There's a little thing called social responsibility and common decency that seems to have gone by the wayside a long time ago. These virtues seem to have disappeared completely in favor of greed and power.

There's a fine line between what's required to hold the social fabric and fairness together and what is oppressive or unjust.

I agree with you that there's a major problem in that the social responsibility of the population is so low that at this point the government has carte blanche. And that is something that needs to change and quick before it's too late and we'll walk right into a totalitarian regime without even a fight.

But unless a whole lot more people realize this, there's not a lot of hope that things will change.

What gets me though is, that most people I know and talk to (and no - not all of them are liberal or alternative in their thinking) are dissatisfied with the way our society is headed. Many admit that they don't think they will be better off than their parents, that they are not meeting their ends, that government policy is not how they feel. The way this country acts arrogantly is not just a reflection of its leaders but society in general...

As you say, it's bread and circuses is all that seems to be what most care about.

re: Your Tax dollars and your Future at work
by Jamie Osborn March 17, 2006 @ 12:33 pm

Don't worry - we're right with you in here in Oz!

35% of my income goes in income tax and then we have 10% GST and all of the other hidden taxes. And don't mention the price of fuel!

re: Your Tax dollars and your Future at work
by Bertrand Le Roy March 17, 2006 @ 10:16 pm

Did the sarcasm get lost here? Mmmh.

re: Your Tax dollars and your Future at work
by Rick Strahl March 18, 2006 @ 12:16 am

Maybe <g>... You never know. Maybe you need to work on your :-} expressions...

re: Your Tax dollars and your Future at work
by V March 18, 2006 @ 6:36 am

There is, of course, a solution: http://www.vforvendetta.com

P.S. - I'm just kidding, Feds <g>. Great movie though.

re: Your Tax dollars and your Future at work
by David Brabant March 20, 2006 @ 1:03 am

<sarcasm>
More than one third of your incomes? Bwahahaha. Lucky you! Want to know how much you pay in Belgium?
</sarcasm>

re: Your Tax dollars and your Future at work
by rich March 20, 2006 @ 3:35 am

Some more information here...

http://www.deviantart.com/view/9410862/

re: Your Tax dollars and your Future at work
by Jerry March 22, 2006 @ 5:31 am

Some sarcastic statement from germany:
You got what you elected. you all k(could) knew it.

building torture centers,
building justice free regions,
spreading your terror in the world is not for free.
You pay for it.
Today()!
And a long time in the future.

And likely even more serious: you lost a lot of friends all over the world.

have fun.