Cape Karen
It's tax time again. Time to add up and deduct. Time to pay Uncle Sam his due. And just where does all that hard-earned money go that we all pay in every year? Our government is in serious debt; it has never been this bad. So, what is going on? We keep our end of the bargain, could it be that someone is stealing our money? Could it be that there are some irresponsible stewards of our dollars? Does anyone even care anymore? How many zeros are in a hundred-trillion dollars?
We've all heard about the privately-owned jets that take our elected officials to many exotic places - some of those same officials who are now under federal indictment for corruptions of one sort or another; we've heard about the thousands of started and failed 'grand ideas' that have wasted millions of our tax dollars (like those 10,000 trailers still sitting vacant in AL) and, each year, John Stossel and his 'give me a break report' nails some of the grossest abuses for us publicly.
Yup. We all know that billions and billions of American taxpayer dollars are being wasted every year on frivolous and ridiculous things. And yet we keep on keeping on ~ paying our taxes every year ~ good and faithful law-abiding citizens that we are.
Think of it this way - suppose there was a law that required you to give 30% of what you earned yearly, no matter how meager your earnings, to a neighbor named Sam. Then, suppose you saw that Sam was driving a new Mercedes every year - while you're driving a ten-year-old Chevy - and he and his family are going on lots of big vacations around the world - while you and your family can't afford to go to dinner.
Also, Sam and his family are dressed way better than you are, they've been buying expensive gifts for all their friends; they own a private jet, they've got every new electronic gadget on the market, they've invested in fifteen scams where they've lost millions and over the years they've started numerous failed businesses. Now, because they are trillions and trillions of dollars in debt, they're borrowing money from their foreign neighbors, and paying huge amounts of interest on that money. . .to the point where they're thinking about requiring you to pay more to Sam next year than ever before in history.
The question is: will we continue to give our neighbor Sam our hard-earned money every year to spend however he wishes? Do we not want to insist that he give us a dollar-by-dollar accounting of where our "contributions" are going? We know that Sam keeps meticulous records of our tax payments, and he fines us mightily if we underpay or even if we pay a day late -and god forbid the tax audit if we make a mistake or don't pay at all. So, why aren't we doing the same to him?
There are 12 million illegal aliens working in this country now, with thousands more pouring over the borders every day, and they don't pay one cent of their income to Sam. They're here doing jobs that it's said us legal American citizens consider too 'menial' to do - like picking grapes and digging ditches. (But, has anyone asked the unemployed New Orlean's displaced American if he would like to pick some grapes?) That's a whole 'nother topic - way too big to get into - but it begs more questions.
I would love to see a united U.S. strike on Uncle Sam! I would be so thrilled if a national movement began where every tax-paying American said, "No more irresponsible wasting of our money!" I would feel so good if every taxpayer just refused to pay their taxes, en masse, until a meticulous accounting of government spending was enacted.
I'd love it if we all met at the Potomac next April 1st (April Fool's!) and threw our tax bills into the river!
But, then. . . I would also like to see an alien spacecraft land on the White House lawn and whisk the entire current administration away to another galaxy ~ and the chances of that happening are about the same as seeing an American tax revolt.
So, I guess I'd better go to the Post Office now, buy a new 39ยข stamp, and mail my little 1040 ~ just so Sam can have another great year spending money like a drunken sailor.
Ahoy mates!