Yesterday was tax day in the U.S. - the date by which all income earners in the U.S. must file our 2010 tax forms with the Internal Revenue Service.
I don't mind paying taxes. After all, my tax dollars help to pay for roads, police and fire departments, libraries, and other common services.
I do, however, resent having my tax dollars misspent.
For example, according to CNBC, 42.2 cents of every income-tax dollar are spent on the military.
At the same time, only 4.4 cents of every income-tax dollar go towards education.
So think about this:
We spend almost 10 times as much on killing and destruction as we spend on educating our young people.
Unlike the GOP, I don't think the answer is to reduce our taxes. After all, they like to cut taxes without cutting "defense" expenditures. (Instead it's the important domestic priorities that suffer.)
The solution: Elect a majority to Washington who will not allow themselves to be bought and sold by the military-industrial complex that (Republican) President Eisenhower warned us about.
But I won't hold my breath, particularly in today's political climate.
Thanks Mary, the link to the CNBC site was both illuminating and infuriating. I posted a link to that and enumerated the spending as it showed it. I stopped near the end and looked at what amounted to the budget of a country with a dysfunctional conscience. I didn't want to say that in front of all of my friends but it's the truth. Collectively we are very stingy toward one another. We tend not to be cooperative unless there is a payoff and we adopt ideologies and theologies that tell us that there is no problem and if there is, it's Gods will and it's not a proper function of government to get involved for any reason. My country makes me sick sometimes. Unfortunately, I am as cynical as you - I wont hold my breath either.
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