Some interesting things about living in our country

If you're like me, (and as what follows is about paying taxes I sort of hope that you aren't like me. I paid my taxes once as a functioning adult before my wife took them over the following year and every year since, filing them via TurboTax or whatever, while I've no earthly clue how one goes about properly paying taxes or what our income is or any of that sort of stuff) you really enjoy that old saying about certainties and "death and taxes" because it is funny and true.

But if you're also like me it's funny to think about where all of your taxes actually go. I assumed that the majority of my taxes went to funding NPR's leftist/communist agendas, funding the EPA's continuing interference in the business of God-fearing Americans with trumped up ideas about climate change, and maybe a small bit was left over for things like Social Security and Medicare (why oh why can't we figure out health care. The people who have it are already financing it for others. Ugghhhh). Anyhow, a friend of mine put up this handy dandy tax calculator that helps you to understand where all of your tax dollars are actually going. Hint: It's not all being devoted to the stipends of guest on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me and cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay watershed. This is the sort of thing that you should immediately check out so as to educate yourself about your tax dollars (insert joke about the federal government and something along the lines of your tax dollars sort of trying to work amidst reams of red tape if you're so inclined).

http://www.whitehouse.gov/tax-receipt

No really, do it. Go back up to that previous link and at least do the shortcut where they let you roughly estimate your income. Or hell, just estimate someone else's income to see where their tax dollars went. Just look at your taxes. Who knew taxes could be this fun?

And look, if you still haven't done it you're a lot like me. 1) You don't like being told what to do. 2) You are too busy, though not too busy to be reading this blog. 3) Lazy in the sort of way that so much of the American populous is now. We've sort of ceded a lot of our civic duties to the government, and now we're pissed that they're running over budget. And this sort of laziness, of which this author is most certainly guilty, is probably going to become problematic at some point in the future or perhaps we'll just go bumbling along. "This country has a lot of big problems. Congress is one of them."

Fact:

Article below that talks about how NPR and the EPA are ruining the world by taking up all of our taxes. Hint: This turns out to be untrue. Also, read on particularly if you were too lazy to use the link to see where your hard earned dollars went. If your dollars were earned easily don't worry about it.

Relevant Portion from Rasumessen Reports. Bolded sections mine.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 27% of Likely Voters say the United States does not spend enough money on the military and national security. Thirty-two percent (32%) say America spends too much on defense, while a plurality (37%) thinks the nation spends about the right amount. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
But only 25% of voters believe the United States should always spend at least three times as much on defense as any other nation. Forty percent (40%) do not think the country needs to spend this much, while 35% are not sure. Interestingly, if the government were to actually spend only three times as much as any other nation, it would imply a significant cut in U.S. defense spending.

For fiscal year 2011, the total budget for defense is estimated to be around $719 billion. That does not include the cost of veterans’ care, which totals another $124 billion. By comparison, no other nation in the world spends more than $110 billion on defense. Earlier polling showed that just 58% recognize that the United States spends more on defense than any other nation in the world.

Underlying voters’ opinions on how much the United States spends on defense is the fact that many don’t know where most of the government’s money already goes. Just 40% can correctly identify that most federal spending goes towards national defense, Social Security and Medicare. Roughly the same number (38%) believes this statement to be false, while another 22% are not sure.


So yeah, we might have some bigger fish to fry in this whole budget debate then public radio and the clean air act and food stamps.

A modest proposal related by this same friend and an NPR commentator related to decreasing our budget deficit. The other option is to tax more, which it seems that no one likes, so even though the idea listed below is a form of taxation, it doesn't have the dirty word association like taxes do and gives the added benefit of relieving the debt burden on the middle class type folks who have large things like student debt hanging over their heads.

Inflation - the reduction in the nominal value of currency - reduces the real value of debts. While lenders take inflation into account when they decide the terms of a loan, unexpected increases in the rate of inflation cause categorical debt relief.

And yes, this does mean we wouldn't be able to purchase as many things and it would slow economic growth, but perhaps it's good to ask ourselves whether we want a swiftly growing economy ad infinitum and whether things go about making us any happier...Okay enough on budgets. Note: The historical antecedent that would argue against this is the fall of Rome, which some speculate was brought about by hyperinflation and an increased tax burden its citizenry due to regular infrastructure needs on a constantly expanding empire, (I think we're done expanding though Canada is tempting) and an increased amount on defense spending. (Please no more wars in the middle east) Note to Note: The real downfall though if we're going the tax route was their eventual inability to collect much revenue at all. But this has all gotten a bit long and even reasonable people who have checked on their tax returns cannot be expected to read about the tax problems for palatines in the 440's without eventually glazing over.