General Motors on the verge of bankruptcy. Churches closing, hospital layoffs. Retirement funds shrinking, jobs vanishing. Politicians too insulated to appreciate their constituents problems.
Obesity rampant among children. End of life ethics debated. Cities crumbling as aged infrastructure fails. Billions needed to bail out the banks. Nationalize the marginal banks. Public transportation in dire straights as fleets age and maintenance is deferred. Schools under funded, teachers leaving the profession in droves.
It seems inconceivable to me that America can go to the moon but can’t understand that today’s choices will have consequences tomorrow.
Taxes are a necessary requirement so that all of us pay our share for what we believe is critical to all American’s health and happiness. Health Care, transportation, roads and bridges, teacher’s salaries and pensions. Garbage collection, libraries, public health clinics and so on.
We have acted over the last fifty years as if we could short change the system and nothing would ever come back to us. Now, with record amounts of tax money being spent to bail out America, how can anyone believe that it won’t be paid for by every worker and retiree over the next few years?
Personally, I think I pay enough taxes. Look at every utility bill and see the nickels and dimes that are hoovered up by the local, state and federal governments. Multiply by the number of people state wide and then county wide and it becomes a very large number, a part of the hidden taxes we all pay. But I’ve been on a fairy tail ride the last thirty years. We passed tax reform and tax limits, but we were never able to get our so called public servants to represent our opinions instead of running for re-election. So instead of health reform and school funding, we built sport arenas. Just what did we do with those billions of tax dollars? Why can’t anyone seem to tell us exactly where it all went?
Now billions, or perhaps trillions, more are needed to shore up state pensions that will be exhausted before long, leaving teachers and other workers without protection for their retirements. Cities and states are in such financial straights that some cities may have to taken over by the state. Maybe we could auction off the naming rights to Chicago or Illinois. Doesn’t “The Grace L. Ferguson Airline and Storm Door Company” FKA Illinois have a dandy ring to it? How about the Bank of America City, FKA Detroit?
How could this happen? Well the answer is easy and ugly. The government was forced to rob Peter to pay Paul. When we wanted sexy sounding programs but not the responsibility of paying for them, the politicians raided the money that was supposed to go to schools and pensions to pay for their priorities. Every loud special interest group with an agenda was given a share of the pie until nothing remained for busses and trains, and maintenance. Immigrant health care, education, more and better trained police, fire fighting equipment, and better salaries for teachers. We can stay mad, ignore the problems and stick our head in the sand, but that will only get us more of the same.
I like the idea of term limits. I think we should pay all our taxes with an income tax. Add up what we need and divide by the number of tax payers. Limit deductions and credits so that everyone will pay their share. We need to find a way to avoid bankrupting the future. Property taxes are not the solution. Never have been. Never will be.
Just like the person that sues McDonald’s because he has heart trouble from too many Big Macs, we seem to think someone else will do the heavy lifting for us here. Someone else will pay the bill, so that we can continue to live the good life. And we continue to frolic along oblivious to the needs of the poor, the helpless and the elderly.
But we will learn either the hard way or the easy way. The choice is up to each one of us.
Get involved. Let your elected officials know how you feel. Tell them what you want to support. After all we elected them to represent us, not themselves.
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