I'm more than a little bit fed up with people clamoring for tax cuts while so many of our important, tax-funded programs are having trouble keeping their doors open. Who wants to pay taxes? Probably no one. Who benefits from taxes? EVERYONE.
Taxes pay for public schools.
Taxes pay for roads.
Taxes pay for public libraries.
Taxes pay for law enforcement.
Taxes pay for firefighters.
Taxes pay for city water & sewer systems.
Taxes pay for parks.
Taxes pay for garbage collection.
Taxes pay for Veterans benefits.
Taxes pay for city transit systems.
Taxes pay for the postal service.
And ON AND ON. Taxes pay for all these services, AND THE PEOPLE WHO WORK WITHIN THEM. I work in education and the number of teacher layoffs that have occurred DUE TO BUDGET SHORTFALLS is staggering. When schools systems can't afford to pay their teachers, they also cannot afford to pay for any programs that benefit their teachers - programs like professional development in math, science, technology, and language arts. They can't afford to give teachers the materials they need to be effective in the classroom. Teachers, who plead to their schools for extra funding, are lucky if they get support from their local PTA. And what does that mean? That means that parents who are already contributing toward the school system via property taxes have to *further* dip into their ever-shrinking pockets to help teachers buy classroom materials.
Here's an informative article (from the crazy librul NY Times - gasp!) about the recent figures reported from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. I think the article does a good job at pointing out how the the numbers can be interpreted based on an "cleverly selective reading of the facts." People are not interested in research; they're interested in sound bites. In particular, they're only interested in sound bites that confirm their opinion- whether or not those soundbites are truthful. Economics and taxes are complicated topics. Why take the time to learn more and understand them? BO-RING! I'd rather just voice my knowledge-less opinion.
Sophia Nelson - a black woman aligned with the Tea Party - had a chance to add to the conversation on Talk Of The Nation on Monday. I'm really looking for someone from that group to *tell us something substantive* about what they believe, and why they think we're being taxed too much. [Taxed too much under Obama, that is. I don't recall the Tea Party forming when W. decided to go to war with Iraq on the taxpayers' dime.] Here's a quote from the transcript:
NEAL CONAN: You just talked about burdensome taxes. And you mention that in your piece, as well. And slightly off the subject of your op-ed, but there was just a analysis by the Bureau of Economic Analysis that said taxes, federal, state, local, are at historic lows, lowest level since 1950.
SOPHIA NELSON: Hmm. That's interesting. When I look in my pay check, I don't see that. Maybe it's because I'm single and, you know, you don't get the deductions, single, head of household - I mean, household, I'm sorry - and children and all those things. But I don't know anybody I know, as I talked about in the piece, who thinks they're not taxed too much. And I'm not just talking about, like...
NEAL CONAN: Or you could still believe they're too high, but they are, in fact, historically low.
SOPHIA NELSON: Well, that depends on who you have saying that. I bet if I go to CATO or Heritage or one of those sites, they're going to tell me they're historically high. How much you bet?
NEAL CONAN: Well, I bet if John McCain were president, you'd be trumpeting lower taxes.
BOOM.
For the record: The Bureau of Economic Analysis (the one Neal mentioned) is non-partisan. The CATO Institute (that Sophia mentioned) is a Libertarian think-tank. And the Heritage Foundation (which she also mentioned), according to their website, focuses on Conservative Policy Research and Analysis. I'll let you draw your own conclusion about that.
If anyone out there feels differently than I do, please feel free to write in and tell me why I'm wrong. I'm sure there's a private sector/free market answer to all these problems, right? What IS Blackwater up to these days, anyway? Well, aside from being indicted on federal weapons charges? Damn that big gubmint!!!!
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You are not wrong. Did I tell you that I was billed by the city of San Francisco for the care provided by the paramedics when I was hit by a car? I am happy to pay for it, of course, the paramedics were ROCKSTARS, but still... I thought that paramedics and fire departments and such were paid for by taxed. Well, they were until the budget shortfalls...
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