We are learning that the IRS has singled out conservative groups for harm. So who are these IRS people? How did this happen?
This is a result of unchecked government expansion. I blame Uncle Sugar and the tar baby.
For most of our history, only 5% of GDP was spent on Federal government–except in time of war. Now we are at 25%.
Of course this has happened because we “get more” than ever from the government.
- We get an outstanding, brave military, ready to jump in where needed.
- We get care and support for seniors.
- We get food stamps for hungry folks.
- We get protected from every environmental risk–real or imagined.
- We get “stimulus money” when business goes sour.
- We get a mammoth collection agency to fund all this–the IRS.
What we get is really expensive. Is it worth it?
Military. Over the last few decades our troops have been involved in Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan and apparently permanent occupations in Europe, Japan and Korea. Lives have been lost, troops maimed and trillions of dollars spent. As a result attacks within the U. S.–attacks by Muslim radicals–have increased.
Seniors. When I retired, my employer and I had contributed over $700,000 to Social Security and Medicare. (This includes interest.) Now I am constantly insulted with the word “entitlement” –for what I myself paid. It makes me sound like a welfare case. Now we hear these programs will “go bankrupt” soon. If so, the programs were obviously mismanaged from the get-go. A cynic would say the real purpose of these programs was to support reelection of Congress people who gave us stuff. This is the creation of Uncle Sugar.
Food stamps. Poverty and hunger are awful. But I see nothing in our founding documents about Free Food. How about free water? We need that too, don’t we? And I get cold in the winter. I could use some free heat. (Uncle Sugar has some work to do.)
Environment. When I was young the Cuyahoga River in Ohio was so polluted it actually caught fire. The EPA fixed that. Now with a budget of $9 BILLION and 17,000 employees, the EPA sees most everything as a problem to fix. So we get Federally subsidized electric cars, solar panels and really expensive light bulbs. Even our auto fuel is full of corn distillates. Way to go, Uncle Sugar!
Stimulus money. To prevent any discomfort from a bad business downturn, Uncle Sugar came up with a new one: give us money from our unborn descendants. (So-called Deficit Spending for Investments in America.) Hey, the Unborn don’t vote, so it's a Win-Win, right?
IRS. This huge government expansion is funded by the Taxman–106,000 of them. They now appear to be “helping” the Administration by harassing its enemies. Thousands more are coming to collect for ObamaCare.
We let this happen. We assumed public service workers were good folks, working in boring jobs for less pay. Of course, they did have outstanding job security, but that seemed a fair trade off.
Now we know these workers actually make MORE than we do, have killer benefits and pensions and go on all kinds of Vegas trips, yukking it up about taxing us to death.
And just today it came out that ex-IRS Chief Shulman, a supposedly non-political appointee, has a wife who is a supporter of, and active participant in, the Occupy Wall Street movement!
Years ago The Incredible Bread Machine by R.W. Grant explained how much tax we really pay for loaf of bread. Since labor and profits are taxed at each stage of production–grow the wheat, mill the flour, bake the bread, ship the loaf, run the store–over 90% of the cost of bread is taxes.
Like sheep to be fleeced, we silently pay and pay for all the stuff Uncle Sugar pretends to give us.
Uncle Sugar, you see, actually is the tar baby. Just like foolish Brer Rabbit, we have stuck ourselves to it.
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