"I'm proud to be paying taxes in the United States. The only thing is I could be just as proud for half the money."
- Arthur Godfrey (1903 - 1983)
Rebecca Hagelin over at The Heritage Foundation informs us, among other things, that we have to work until July 11 every year just to pay all our taxes. Sobering indeed. We invest half the working year for our government. Not for ourselves, or for our families, but for our government. Think about that!
A couple of buddies of mine recently emailed me a list of all the taxes that we, as U.S. citizens, have to pay. I was flabbergasted. I knew we paid many, but this list was two pages long! Deciding to investigate further, I trolled over to the Americans for Tax Reform site and searched their archives.
It turns out that my friends were on the money. In addition to income and social security taxes levied upon us, there are literally dozens of other "hidden" taxes that we must pay. Read Grover Norquist's article if you want to know more.
Funny thing is that there are some people I meet who think that we should pay MORE taxes. Lordy! Then we can work until August to pay the bill.
Governor Mike Huckabee down in Arkansas had a solution for folks like this. He proposed a "Tax Me More" line on the state return that would allow individuals who wanted to pay more to do so. A fine idea, I think, but they've only received $1,900 so far.
I, for one, believe the more dollars we send to our government, the more it will spend. So why send more? Would you rather let your congressmen decide how to spend your money or prefer to make those choices yourself? The answer is a no-brainer for me.
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