Tax Day

Or is it Tax Freedom/Relief Day?  I believe today is it, the day when the average American has earned enough money (from January 1) to pay off taxes for the year.  Wow!  We had to work three and a  half months just to pay off our federal, state, and local taxes?  Well, at least we get to keep the last eight and a half months' income--for a while.  Isn't that ridiculous?

Now before I go further, those who don't think it's "ridiculous" can keep paying if they want.  There's no law that prohibits them from putting their money where their mouths are.  If they think it's good (or as Joe Biden claimed, "patriotic") to pay taxes for more and more government spending, then certainly they should keep sending more of their money to Washington, to Lansing, to their local governmental units.  At least then we could have a little more respect for them, that they tried to live like they talked.

I think Tax Freedom/Relief Day is a few days later this year than last.  That's not encouraging, not at all.  One account claims the federal government will take in, for the first time, more than $3 trillion in taxes.  Yet, that's not enough for the ravenous spending.  The feds will borrow another half billion dollars, from the commies in China, our friends the Saudis, etc.  State and local governments will bag another trillion and a half dollars.

To put that in perspective, according to the Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, Americans annually spend about $4.2 trillion on food, clothing, and their homes.  That is, we pay more in taxes than we do on the necessities of life.  Isn't that ridiculous?  (See above if you don't think so.)

The national debt is somewhere in the $18 trillion range.  If each American (at least those who are working) gave all of their income, down to the last penny, in '14 to Washington, that wouldn't pay off that debt.  (Isn't that ridiculous?  (See above......)

We obviously don't have a revenue problem, not at all.  It's the politicians and bureaucrats in government who have a spending problem.  As Economic Nobelist Milton Friedman once noted, "It's easy to spend other people's money."

There are many, many ways to cut spending.  It's just that there are very few politicians with the integrity and courage to do so.  Not many of them subscribe to Harry Truman's dictum, "Do what's right, not what's popular."

At least tangentially in that same vein, there are far too many unelected people who make decisions, financial and otherwise.  These are the bureaucrats who are, for the most part, accountable to nobody.  Certainly no one from Congress seems to question them.

I got a kick out of a recent poll (Washington Post??????) that indicated 16% of Americans don't believe that Obama lies, not at all.  Gee, even the Post has given Obama "Pinocchios."  Can there be that many naive people out there?

One of the articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon was that he approached the IRS to go after his political enemies.  To its credit--then!--the IRS said no; it refused to use its considerable (and I believe unconstitutional) authority to do so.  (Where else in American society is a person judged guilty until he proves his innocence?)  Still, the attempt by Nixon was enough for an article of impeachment.  Yet, it is pretty apparent that, from somewhere in the White House, orders came to the IRS to attack Barrack Obama's political enemies.  (I suppose if there are 16% of American who don't think Obama lies, there are many who still believe Lois Lerner and Obama that there were "rogue IRS agents" in the Cincinnati office who targeted the conservative groups.  Yeah, right, "rogues......")  I know there's no chance of impeaching Obama, but isn't it interesting to compare then and now.