Tax-And-Spend Mania in America: Both Parties Are Guilty as Sin!

The average family of four has an annual household income of around $35,000. This isn't much money to feed, clothe, house, educate, and entertain them. In order for the family ship of state to sail forward, the family must operate within a strict budget where every dollar has a purpose and, if there is anything left over, put some away into an emergency fund so they don't have to borrow any money whenever they get into a jam. Since the Average Joe and Jane cannot just demand or take more money from their bosses, they must forgo many luxuries and extras, and focus chiefly on the bare necessities required for their families' survival.

What a travesty it is that our elected officials are so lazy, greedy, and undisciplined that they can just go and arbitrarily take more money from their bosses, the People who elected them, whenever they feel like it. It happens everywhere in this country on the national, state, and local level. It happens in the form of increased taxes, fines, and fees for everything from municipal parking to access to national, state, and county parks. When the people rightfully complain about this unconstitutional extortion, they are ignored and treated as if they are the greedy ones. If I remember my history lessons correctly, wasn't this sort of governmental usury the very reason for the Revolution against the British Crown in the first place?

The Bush administration has torn through the money in our national treasury like drunken sailors. It is a widely known fact that our government is currently being sustained with borrowed money from China and Japan, and if they ever decide to call all their loans due, they can literally destroy America in a way that will make 1929 look like a church picnic!

Although there was a surplus when Bush took office, the administration's negligence and mismanagement of the Iraq conflict has squandered every bit of it away. Most of it has not gone to the soldiers with their boots on the ground, but into the coffers of corporations like Halliburton and to warlords and racketeers. There are billions of dollars that went to Iraq which cannot be accounted for, and the Administration has had the nerve to ask Congress for more money several times.

Fiscally responsible Republican legislators like John J. Duncan, Jr. (8th District-TN) who dared to vote against throwing money into this void have been given cutesy names like RINO (Republican In Name Only), and have been wrongfully accused of not supporting our troops and wanting defeat for them abroad. It is elected officials like him who know what is really happening to all this money, and have the guts to stand up and call the Administration out on it. But anyone who does so is always accused of "hating" our brave military men and women by supposedly depriving them of weapons and body armor. Just think of how much body armor could've been bought if this administration had to stick to a budget like the rest of us!

On the state level, Michigan, New Jersey and most recently Virginia have recently imposed "super-fines" on people who violate minor traffic laws. It is always pitched to the public as a way to sock it to evil motorists like speeders and drunk drivers. However, these things always turn into very broad punishments for even minor infractions like double-parking or letting a parking meter expire. Even though the poor, as usual, will bear the brunt of this unconstitutional practice, unfortunately, state governments' insatiable need for more revenue will always trump what's decent and right.

Michigan and New Jersey both have had corruption and fiscal irresponsibility issues for many decades. Therein lies the real problem. Like a bunch of overgrown Paris Hiltons, they are so used living undisciplined lives where they pretty much get whatever they want that they cannot even fathom having to live within the strict parameters of a realistic budget. Besides, when all they have to do whenever the need for more money arises is to just take it, then there is no need! Despite the quickly growing movement in Michigan to repeal this unfair, ineffective law, Governor Jennifer Granholm will surely veto any attempt to do so. She says the state needs the money, but Michigan already has some of the highest taxes of any state. Perish the thought that they just spend those billions in annual income more wisely!

Even here in Knoxville, our corrupt County Commission has used every underhanded trick in the book to make living in a once-reasonably taxed city almost as expensive as living in Atlanta, even though we are only about a third as big. So far, we have been blackmailed into a huge wheel tax increase, a property tax hike, higher fees for downtown parking, and soon we will see toll roads and another wheel tax increase up to $120 per vehicle. This past July, it has come out that our County Commissioners have been spending all this new, "free" money on their personal vacations, entertainment, and even lobster dinners, having the gall to tell voters that all that was necessary, because they were wooing bigwigs and fatcats so they'd do "bid'ness" with them and make Knoxville a better place (for WHO?).

Clearly the solution is simple; We The People must demand a budget and force politicians to stick to the budget, and hold politicians accountable for their actions. We elect them, after all, to be wise and prudent stewards of OUR money! We just can't go pickin' dollars off the money tree when we have tough times, so why should we allow them to do so when they make selfish, stupid, impulsive decisions with OUR money? If my wife and I managed money the way these spoiled brats do, we'd surely be living under a bridge right now!