Today, July 12, is the day that we stop working for the government and start working for ourselves! Yes, that's right, from January 1 to now we've all been working to pay for that mammoth bureaucracy that we call the federal government, but not anymore.
Entitlements for immigrants? Yes, that was pretty much the entire month of February. Their health care and social security are just a few of the many things that we all worked for over the past half-year.
Social Security? We'll probably NEVER get to benefit from this dinosaur concept, but we worked for it, probably several weeks in March or April.
Welfare and Food Stamps? Those people didn't work for it, but we did, no doubt a few weeks in May.
Foreign Aid? Hundreds of millions of dollars were given to countries who hate us, and we probably worked most of June to pay for it.
How about the money that goes to the UN? We furnish a LARGE amount of that organization's budget and probably had to work a few days in January to pay them.
But no more! Starting tomorrow, the money we earn is ours! So get up early, have a good breakfast and an extra cup of coffee because tomorrow we're all working for ourselves! I'm gonna put in a good ten hours and whistle a catchy tune all the way home knowing that my paycheck is ALL MINE.
Here's to all of you taxpayers, and a prayer that a liberal won't take the White House in '08, otherwise we may not be working for ourselves until October.
6 comments:
You're forgetting to mention that half of that time was spent working to pay for the massive military machine. Be fair.
Again, you can't complain about working a few weeks to pay for welfare and ignore the few months you have to work to pay for guns and bombs and you can't call "liberals" big spenders when you're advocating spending 20x what they are.
Fair? Is there ANYTHING about the American tax code that's fair?
At least spending money on defense provides a service for me, protecting my freedom across the globe. I get nothing from the welfare recipients or the illegal immigrants.
And don't forget that even with our current defense budget and ongoing war, we are STILL taxed less than we were ten years ago...and don't get me wrong, I am not IN ANY WAY defending our current big spending congress. GOP and Democrat, they ALL make me sick.
My point is that government is too big. If you want to cut defense, fine, but we can't stop there. After all, you DO want to be fair right?
"I get nothing from the welfare recipients or the illegal immigrants."
Actually, by investing some money in welfare, we are saving probably twice (I don't know exact figures, but be certain there's a savings) in having less crime, fewer indigents, more folk working, more folk in homes. With welfare, the thing is, we WILL be paying money one way or t'other. It's just a matter of do we want to be proactive or reactive?
And, as I think I've said before, I'd be glad to cut the welfare budget by 20% (~$4 billion) if we'll also cut the military budget by 20% (~$120 billion). Fair enough?
Are you suggesting that welfare reduces crime?
Please tell me what the crime rate in America was prior to the welfare system being enacted? If it was significantly higher than now, then you may have some merit in that argument.
I'm not sure that is the best measure, but I'd guess that the crime rate was lower long ago, for a variety of reasons. Are you suggesting that welfare encourages crime?
The point I'm making is, one can invest in problems to reduce their negative side effects. Fiscal responsibility would encourage us to act proactively to problems rather than reactively.
Studies have been done that show, for instance, that convicts who get some education while in school have a lower recividism rate. Convicts who complete a degree have an even lower recividism rate. If that is the case, then would it not make plain fiscal sense to invest money in getting convicts to educate themselves while imprisoned? Even if it costs us money?
And set aside compassion: We're talking self-interest. Most prisoners are going to get out of jail one day. Do we want an educated and more reformed prisoner or one more likely to go back to prison? One that's going to become a taxpayer or a tax burden?
That's what I'm talking about - fiscal responsibility.
[one source:
http://www.prisonactivist.org/pipermail/prisonact-list/2001-November/004371.html
"But there are also real financial savings. We found that for every dollar you spend on education, you save two dollars by avoiding the cost of re- incarceration."
Stephen J. Steurer of the Correctional Education Association, the lead author on the study]
So, shall we both cut our areas by 20%? I can save the overburdened US taxpayer about $120 b-b-billion and you can save about $5 billion and everyone will be happier - what do you say?
$120 billion divided amongst the 300 million US citizens, what's that come to? $400 for every man, woman and child? Or, if we split it just amongst the ~200 million adults, I reckon that'd be close to $600 extra a year.
Add in that $5 billion you've saved and that'd bring it up to a whopping $625 returned to the rightful owners. Let's do it!
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