Taxes
As part of his ongoing effort to portray Obama as the source of all evil, seemingly oblivious to the economic meltdown of 2008, my good friend John Galt complains about how it's a crime that April 13 has been calculated by one group as the first day you can stop working for the government and start working for yourself.
If John were being fair, he'd point out that this April 13 "tax freedom day" comes earlier than many recent years, thanks in part to Obama's efforts.
If John were being objective, he'd look at some other numbers that show that the "tax freedom day" is a bit overhyped, as revealed by our own CBO's numbers.
# Estimates from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) show that middle- and even upper-middle-income Americans pay less of their income in federal taxes than the "average" tax burden reported in the Tax Foundation's "Tax Freedom Day" report.
# In fact, the CBO estimates indicate that some 80 percent of U.S. households pay federal tax at rates lower than the Tax Foundation's reported average.
And if John wanted to see the silver lining, he could see that America has consistently been ranked by the Heritage Foundation and other conservative and libertarian groups as one of the most economically free nations in the world. Will Obama's outrageous tax cuts to most Americans and mild increase to the wealthy drop us out of the top 10? I doubt it.
The real concern with Obama is that he's gambling that his costly long-term investments will give us the infrastructure that we need to grow faster than our debt. Since Bush supporters say that he'll need a generation before his efforts can be judged, how about at least, oh, a year or two for Obama....? Instead, we get this talk about "tyranny," which somehow wasn't a problem when Eisenhower and Reagan were overseeing higher rates of taxes, or when Bush was pushing through Patriot Acts. That's why I think John's constant lamenting about Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright shows a generalized annoyance at Democrats rather than a focused, valid concern.
I am well aware of when Tax Freedom Day falls, and it's too damn late in the year, period. What's more, for some of us, it comes significantly later in the year.
Why are my parents getting a $500 gift from the government, by the way, while my husband and I, struggling with kids in college and working our butts off, get jack nada?
To be clear, I don't want a "gift" from Obama. I want him to get the hell out of my paycheck. And it's the same thing I wanted from every leader before him.
Why, oh why, can no tax-hater give me a clear answer about what they expect the govt to give us? Do you want dirt roads with lower taxes? Do you want to ban public schooling in order to have lower taxes. Given large large deficits that will be passed to your kids, do you want lower taxes?
I don't think the tax-haters have been able to have a serious discussion. You just hate taxes, even while you help elect politicians who spend.
I have no aversion to this discussion; it simply does not translate well to this "quick snippet" format.
However I can simplify it quite a bit. I am primarily talking about the FEDERAL government and federal taxes. Here is what the federal government should do: defense, diplomacy, issues that are interstate in nature (like roads and other transportation issues), and defending the Constitution. (The real one, not the one that funny judges make up where they see silly things that aren't really there.)
Since this is an off the cuff answer, I may be overlooking something, but basically, other than that, most all other spending should be something we are arguing at the state level. And yes that DEFINITELY applies to schooling. Before Carter, I think it was, we didn't even have the Feds involved in public schools. Can anyone credibly argue that they are better now? Uh, no.
There are whole cabinet level departments, whole bureaucracies, that are giant money-sucking drains; not to mention the ones that need to be there that are not run efficiently, like a private business would run them. I certainly am not pointing the finger at Democrats only here, although they do excel at both creating new bureaucracies and staffing them with losers.