April 15, 2008 7:28 PM
Taxes - think about this
“Most of what Congress is constitutionally authorized to spend for is listed in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution and includes: coining money, establish Post Offices, to support Armies and a few other activities. Today’s federal budget is over $3 trillion dollars. I challenge anyone to find specific constitutional authority for at least $2 trillion of it. That includes Social Security, Medicare, farm and business handouts, education, prescription drugs and a host of other federal expenditures. Americans who have become accustomed to living at the expense of another American would not want Congress to obey the Constitution, especially if it left out their favorite handout.†—Walter Williams
Check the the Patriot Post daily for the conservative perspective.
Posted in Current Affairs | Permalink
Comments
I do think about this sort of thing. The very idea of taxes is that the things that are truly NEEDED by everyone in common to live can be acquired. Call me crazy, but for me this calls to mind things like military protection, safe roads and bridges, sewer systems and other key infrastructure, police, fire and emergency medical services, and perhaps even common areas like parks.
This week, once again, I received in the mail, pleading requests for money from both our volunteer fire department and our volunteer EMT's. I also received another reminder that I, the homeowner, am responsible to pay for any repairs that need to be made to sewer lines on my property. Our city's infrastructure is crumbling. I drove across crumbling bridges, did the pothole slalom around town, and bumped along cratered sidewalks. Am I missing something here? We pay high taxes-- exactly where do they go? And why? And how did the most fundamental things get pushed to the bottom of the list?
I know that most of those things are state and local matters but, obviously, the same thing occurs at the federal level. Every time I hear about some $800,000 *study* just to check on the feasibility of some obscure venture, or another true pork barrel grant or project,or-- let's face it-- flagrant waste, I sigh, and think, "There went my entire lifetime of tax contributions, in the first few weeks of that project which accomplished nothing."
Yeah. I think about it.
Posted by: Marian | April 15, 2008 10:15 PM
