2000 Soap Box Archives

Fiscal Responsibility

Did you ever stop to think that every time you buy a gallon of gasoline or go through a toll booth or buy a license that you’re paying taxes? Did you realize that when you die if you have accumulated a significant amount of wealth that the federal government can take the lion’s share of money you have already paid the taxes on one time? We are all aware of the income taxes we are burdened with but I don’t believe that most people even think about the hidden taxes we pay without even thinking about them. Another thing that I don’t believe we consciously think about is that our elected leaders work for us. We are not their slaves nor their employees, and we are not constitutionally bound to supply all the money they can waste on their pork barrel projects and ill advised whims. The way that it should work is that we should give them an amount of money to run the government on and they should have to stay within a budget.if they can’t run the government on what we allow them then they should be fired. In the first place the bureaucracy has reached gigantic proportions on federal and state levels. Political patronage and downright sloth has allowed this bloated giant to reach the level that it takes around 70 cents out of every dollar we send to Washington just to maintain the status quo. If you’ve ever had any dealings with the federal government you know just how inefficient they can be. Any private business operated in the same fashion would not last a year in a competitive market, The motivation in Washington, in most cases, is not to serve the people, it is to be able to get enough votes to be reelected. Which in my book, demonstrates a screaming need for term limits. The politicians talk about campaign finance reform but nobody really does anything about it because it works to their advantage and they don’t want to see it reformed. They talk about taxing the rich, making them pay their fair share, when what they really mean is, ”we want more money to spend to buy votes”. Taxing the rich is not the windfall the politicians would have you believe. The money that the wealthy pay into the bottomless federal coffers is the same money they would otherwise put into investments, creating jobs and prosperity. I believe that everyone should pay their fair share, but what I think a lot of people don’t realize is that a tax on anybody shakes out to be a tax on everybody in one way or another. Bill Clinton takes credit for an economy which started a comeback when Ronald Reagan cut taxes and put in place other fiscally beneficial policies which were reaching fruition about the time that Clinton came into office. The Democratic platform is nothing more than a wish list of more socialistic programs which in one way or another every American will pay for in the long run. I don’t know about you but I hate socialism, I don’t want a one world government, and I couldn’t care less what other countries energy policies are. This is the United States of America, conceived in liberty, dedicated to freedom and paid for in blood. We are one nation, under god, no matter how many times the A.C.L.U. goes to court to try to prove otherwise. I don’t mind paying taxes but I'm sick and tired of paying for the useless pet projects of a bunch of irresponsible politicians. They strut and posture, they cajole and criticize, they claim to feel our pain. But in the end all their carrying on is, as the bard so aptly put it, sound and fury signifying nothing.

Pray for our troops.

What do you think?

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels

 

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