Desert -- I'm not saying that people are MORE educated about what their taxes are going to pay for??? where did you get that in what I posted??? I simply said I don't think most people have the foggiest clue what they actually pay in taxes each year...I don't think MOST (not all, but most) people even know the effective rate they're taxed at. It is simply deducted from their paycheck, and they never notice it. My point is, there would be more concern about the rates of taxation if everyone were forced to write a check for the total taxes owed on 4/15. That' s it...that's my only point.
I don't disagree with this. However I believe a healthier and more critical public exercise would be for people to really get acquainted with tax based (federal, state, local) expenditures and think hard how they or their families directly or indirectly benefit--as well as expenditures or tax breaks that seem relatively narrowly focused that greatly benefit few at the cost of many. People who say they or their families don't get anything from the government they pay taxes to support usually haven't put much thought into it IMO. Who wouldn't love to pay less in taxes while getting the same expenditures--but that usually isn't what were faced with. That is why I mentioned a few posts ago more than anything paying interest on the debt is probably that aspect of my taxpaying I most disdain. But we are stuck with it until we either collect more taxes or cut more spending, or some combination of both, to get rid of it.
Sure enough you did. My bad. One thing I saw recently (frantically looking for link) was that the "entitlements" program, if you stripped away Social Security, pensions for military and government employees and security protection for former presidents would leave only the welfare programs so many complain about. Those programs make up less than 8 percent of the entire entitlement program. There isn't much there to complain about.
Kind of relating to this discussion, I saw a stat on ABC News tonight that said that most people believe the government wastes 44 cents out of every dollar the government brings in.... or something along those lines. Either that shows that a whole lot of people think many of our government's programs are wasteful, or it shows that a lot of people don't have any idea where our tax money goes. While I am sure there is a good deal of waste in government spending, I can't imagine the figure comes anywhere near 44% of the outlays (and I wouldn't consider programs I don't think the government should fund at the levels they fund as "wasteful"). I was just amazed by that stat.
