The Tax Man Cometh!

With the federal debt rising to enormous proportions of our annual budget; with the Bush Administration still trying for enormous Defense Budgets [not even including the Wars] and Wall Street imploding despite their huge profits over the last decade, the time has come to decide why we pay taxes and to get back to those basic core values.

Taxes buy roads, bridges, commuter trains, parks [federal and local], clean water, sewers, fire and police protection, our judicial system, our corrections system, mortgage insurance [VA and FHA and rural homeloans], housing for those who cannot afford any, safe worksites, regulations of Wall Street, immigration management, border protection, search and rescue, the Coast Guard, education, medical care for the elderly and very poor, and so many other things. We all have our pet project that is supported by taxes but we also know that there are some core things that government must do for us. These activities have been attacked by the no-government types for so long, I sometimes wonder if the public really understands that they need government for many, many things in their daily lives. This help doesn't come without cost, but as part of working for the common good, we pay taxes to pay for these things, whether we as an individual uses all of the services or not. We cannot turn our backs on this common good. Yes, many programs in government can and should be improved - to work better, cost less, serve the people more efficiently and effectively - but we shouldn't just throw them out, but without taxes that's what would happen.

We desperately need to come to grips with our spending as a nation, and get to a point where our outgo is equaled by our income. The last 30 years have been mostly about cutting taxes rather than objectively setting priorities. This tax cutting mentality has been done without regard to the need to pay for a wide variety of services. No one wants to pay for government, but everyone wants the services government provides. This disconnect cannot continue. We need to face up to the fact that money must be spent to provide for the common good, and the only place that money can come from is through taxes.

At the same time, we must recognize that the vast number of people at the bottom half of the country have been screwed by unbalance tax burdens [see Social Security, sales taxes, and fees for previously free services]. We need to rebalance that burden. Obama is right to look to helping the middle class but he is not right in his narrow definition. He proposes to tax the rich, because that's where the money is, but eventually, the people who have an affluent if not rich life should bear more of the tax burden than they do now. This redistribution of the tax burden while improving basic government services will make for the common good. We cannot let our personal circumstances dictate our responsibility for sound public policy making.