Taxes: The Elephant in The Room

I took my dog Chelsie to the veterinarian the other day. She was certain nothing good would happen in that place. As the technician literally dragged her into the back, Chelsie left a nice mess on the floor for the staff to clean up.

That’s kind of the way I feel every year when I get my taxes done. Going to the tax accountant’s office, I just know nothing good will happen in there. And while I don’t usually leave a mess for the staff to clean up, I feel I could.

Taxes, we are told, are a necessary evil. Fairness dictates that those receiving the benefits of our government must pay for the services. While the government prints our money, it appears they really don’t have any of their own other than what they take from the citizens. It is a strange relationship, and frankly, one I have yet to understand.

The wealth of ours and most other nations used to be backed by gold. The Gold Reserve Act of 1934 nationalized all of the gold held in banks and forced them to surrender it to the US Treasury. We are told, it was all held in Fort Knox, Kentucky. In 1976, we officially went off the gold standard and our currency is now “fiat”. Although the gold is assumed to still be in Fort Knox, it is now a moot point. Today there are no nations with monetary standards backed by gold.

Our nation’s wealth is presumably set at whatever value it will trade for on the international market. Somewhere in the calculation, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and a host of other factors probably play a part in the valuation too. Like I said, I don’t profess to understand economics. I’m beginning to wonder if anyone truly does.

The point that really confuses me is why we must pay taxes. The US Treasury prints money that then goes into circulation. This paper money represents the wealth of the nation. Our government then borrows boatloads of money from other nations to pay its bills. The borrowed money is backed by the promise of revenues from taxing the citizenry.

Wouldn’t it be simpler to just take what is needed to run the country directly from the printer where it is manufactured? This would take the same amount of money out of circulation that the government would otherwise get from taxes. I suppose the idea is too simple. Or maybe our government enjoys seeing us mess the floor when being dragged to the accountant’s office each year.

Each election year, we hear the politicians make noises about “tax reform”. The taxes levied are intended to cover items in that year’s budget that was hashed out in the House and Senate – plus the national debt. While the debate on tax reform is merely aimed at how the budget number will be divided among the citizens, the real reform needs to take place in the budget.

For some reason cutting big-ticket items -- like military spending, NASA, social services and “entitlements” – seem to provoke the greatest debate. In the end, cuts made to these items usually don’t amount to much. If the politicians would bother going through the budget with a fine-tooth comb, they would find myriads of items that … well, just don’t make sense. Here is a sampling of items I found on Commercial Observer (commercialobserver.com):

• The government spends about $100 million every four years to subsidize parties at the political conventions.
• Last year, $120 million was paid to dead federal employees.
• The government spent $2.6 million to encourage Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly.
• A total of $146 million was paid for federal employees to upgrade their flights to business class.
• The U.S. government spent $27 million to teach Moroccans how to design and make pottery in 2012.
• The National Institute of Health recently gave $666,905 to a group of researchers that is conducting a study on the benefits of watching reruns on television.
• The National Institute of Health also spent $592,527 on a study that sought to figure out once and for all why chimpanzees throw poop.
• The U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research spent $300,000 on a study that concluded the first bird on Earth probably had black feathers.

There is much more, but this sampling just shows how much of the budget – and our money – is being funneled to projects and services that have absolutely no benefit to the tax paying citizens of this country. Have you yearned to know why chimps throw poop or the color of feathers on the first bird? Well, you are paying for the answers, like it or not. I somehow doubt that drunk Chinese prostitutes acting like bimbos is a serious national interest. It’s certainly nothing worth sacrificing my beer money for.

Then there is our “Black” money that doesn’t even show up on the budget. Money, like the bags of hundred dollar bills dropped off on Hamid Karzai’s desk each month. Then look at the billions handed out for “good will” to countries that don’t even like us (e.g. Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, etc.).

Individually, these items don’t look like much. If you divide each item singly by our 260 million taxpayers, it comes to pennies apiece. But when you start adding a million here and a million there, then throw in a billion or two, it can add up to real money.

Yep, death and taxes are unavoidable in life. I guess we are not meant to understand either, but we don’t have to like it.