Thursday, March 5, 2009

Taxes, Local News, National Social Issue

Where have we gone as a nation? Last summer, Iowa was flooded. The damage was tremendous. There were weeks that trucks were detoured on interstate 80 in Eastern Iowa. The town of Cedar Rapids was pretty much devastated. Our local officials st on their thumbs and did little other than lip service due to it being an election year. Sometimes, it seems that doing nothing is the only safe thing politically. There are no morals or conviction in today's politics. It's all about protecting personal power. Alas, that is another topic best saved for a posting of its own.

In their infinite wisdom, these folks, without meaningful help from FEMA or Des Moines, decided that proposing a sales tax increase upon themselves may help them rebuild. How this wasn't immediately seen as flawed logic defies explanation. We can't afford to rebuild our houses and businesses, so we will have money taken from us in order to do it?

This tax actually passed! These folks are taxing themselves to rebuild their own homes. Why not simply dot it yourself? Taxes never sunset. Every time a sales tax has been set to go away in Iowa, the local government stepped in and made it permanent. It may be noble to pool resources in order help each other out, but the notion that the government will be noble enough to give up a portion of it's standard of living when the need is gone is foolish. It simply isn't human behavior!

Obviously, America will not be able to pay off our debt for many generations. Another debate could be had on whether or not there is any desire to pay it off. If for the purposes of this example, we say that we could levy taxes to pay for the projects (taxing those over $250K a year) that are now either law or proposed ($10T). Once these "programs" are paid for, and the economy rebounds, does anyone believe these dollars would cease to be collected?

Example: A citizen works to pay their bills and live comfortably. They buy a home and a car. Upon making the final payment on their car, their employer tells them they will have their monthly pay reduced by the amount of their prior car payment. Is this plausible? I think not.

The above example is the way that the government is supposed to work. The system has been bastardized to the point that if it actually worked in that fashion politicians wouldn't be able to protect their positions of power because they wouldn't be bringing home federal dollars in a disproportionate amount to what was paid in. That too, is another topic.

Until we begin to hold the Federal Government responsible for their unbelievably poor actions, it will never give us our proper standard of living. And yes, that wording is intentional. As it stands now, we are all servants to the government and they have the ability to make or break our standard of living....Our only hope is the ballot box and a study of the history of this great Nation. Of course, we would have to begin teaching civics in the public schools as it was taught generations ago. Again, another topic.

Until next time, keep your powder dry and your eyes open.

2 comments:

  1. I agree wholeheartedly with your observations. It is beyond belief how easy it is to get people to vote to tax themselves. It seems their thought process is "what's a penny?", its for the kids, or whatever string someone has attached to their heart. No one seems to stop and think how much we are taxed if you add them all up. All you have to do is dream up a catchy little name to whatever your cause is, such as "Project Destiny"! How profound and noble sounding. Give me a break! A tax is a tax and as noted in the post above, IT WILL NEVER GO AWAY. When Des Moines voted in the one cent sales tax that would expire in 10 years, they came right back at us with extending it for a few more years. Guess Polk County needed some more state of the art football stadiums. There is so much waste at every level of government. What is so sad is that it is joked about, bitched about, and nothing gets done. I certainly could write page after page of waste I have witnessed, but to what end. It is time for people to speak up every chance they get and shine the light of shame on the wasteful spending and political corruption that adds to the collapse of our economy. It is time that our elected officials get the message that enough is enough. We have to attack at the polls and vote for people with integrity and a sense of what is right and wrong. One of the catch phrases they teach in schools now is "Character Counts". Too bad our politicians did not have that class!

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  2. "Cash Counts" is all today's politicians care about. Like you said, we HAVE to attack at the polls, and EVERYWHERE we can think of. Take the silly surveys on the news sites, blog, talk to your neighbors and relatives(particularly if they believe in hope and change). Politely debate with all of them using facts and stats. They have to be defeated. OUT WITH THE INCUMBENT!!! REGARDLESS OF THEIR POLITICAL PARTY!!!

    Third party, anyone?

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