Home Is the Sailor
Home is the sailor, home from sea:
Her far-borne canvas furled
The ship pours shining on the quay
The plunder of the world.
Home is the hunter from the hill:
Fast in the boundless snare
All flesh lies taken at his will
And every fowl of air.
'Tis evening on the moorland free,
The starlit wave is still:
Home is the sailor from the sea,
The hunter from the hill.
A.E. Housman
Monday, 13 April 2009
Today we finished preparing our annual contribution to the National Extravagance -- otherwise known as our income taxes. Some observations.
Although our income is adequate, it's certainly not excessive, yet this year we owed over 12K in taxes.
This caused me to wonder how much of my 12K is going to line the pockets of the recipients bailout money, or to pay for their travel, or retreats, or perks like jets and limos. How much of my money is going to fund the dining rooms of the House and Senate, where congresspersons eat on the cheap, paid for by the public dole. How much of my 12K is going to fund health care for members of congress, or their retirement fund, or, for that matter, their salaries. Every member of congress makes for than I, and even their annual retired pay is more than our combined annual earnings.
I don't begrudge spending for adequate pay and benefits for service members (I was one), nor for adequate weapons and tools to do their job. But i do object to the proopensity of the Pentagon to jump on the bandwagon for every flashy, high tech project that comes along, especially when they forget I'm paying for it.
I'm drawing Social Security benefits. I was taxed on the FICA I paid for 50+ years, and now I'm being taxed on the beiefits (?) I'm receiving. Even my insurance company does better than that -- I paid taxes on the money I put into insusrance, but the benefits are not taxable. Not only that, Social Security disability benefits are taxable. My VA disability benefits are not.
Now that the bailouts are in excess of a trillion dollars (which will have to be paid for by you and me), I wonder when the individual American is going to get a bailout.
Health care is a bottomless pit for most Americans. This and our educational system rank with Third World countries. The infant mortality rate among the poor is disgraceful, as is our provision for care of the elderly.
The IRS pursues people over a pittance while the wealthy are only tapped when it becomes public (see Tom Daschle and Nancy Killefer, two recent bailouts from Obama's cabinet selection due to unpaid taxes).
This rather unfocused rant is provided courtesy of my 2008 tax bill.
