Gleaning Facebook: It's Tax Day; Yay!

I enjoy reading the Questing Parson and often find him a kindred spirit. Here's the Parson's take on paying taxes:

Click this link to read the Parson's thoughts about Tax Day.

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I'm with the Parson, [Click the Parson's Logo ] again. It helps, of course, that Sheila does the figuring and filing. But I signed the papers today.

I know that my contribution will go toward roads, schools, our military and veterans, my neighbor's healthcare and my own, toward cleaner rivers, maintaining our parks and protecting the wilderness, keeping our food safe, hunting down terrorists and counterfeiters and murderers, maintaining our judicial system and developing vaccines for the latest flu strains. None of those programs will run perfectly and as long as they are administered by human beings we will suffer a degree of incompetency and, sometimes, outright fraud.

Though we always seek a more perfect union, we the people have a pretty good system, by which I am daily enriched. I'm certainly not wealthy, but by virtue of the right parents, reasonably good health and brains, some work ethic, and a fair amount of luck, I earn well above the average of Americans, which puts me in a much higher bracket among my fellow Earthlihgs-at-large.

I would be an absolute jerk, with all my blessings, to complain about the amount of my taxes. I am wonderfully blessed and proud to be an American and am dead serious in proclaiming that I count it a joy and privilege to support my country with my allotment of income tax this time every year.

Happy, April 15th!

Comments:

Laurie Craw Thanks, Terrell. You're a true patriot.

Michael J. Sarver
"As long as those Congresspersons and Senators and state legislators remember that it's my investment and not their expense account, I'll start now putting aside gladly what I expect to contribute next year. And I'll pay those taxes again next year with the same smile."
Beckie Gurley Love the post. It puts paying taxes in perspective. And I also like Michael's comment. It is an investment I am paying. I've truly never thought of it that way before. Now time to file my return:)
Bob Doster Right there with you.
Kevin J. Lennon Awesome post

Lynne Crothers Williams I share your pride in our country and your willingness to support her with your taxes. If we would limit government spending to those functions outlines in the the constitution and leave the others to state and local government and religious and charitable organizations, we could possibly live within our means as a country and not be trillions of dollars in debt.
Terrell Shaw Lynne, I think you and I have different views on the degree to which we the people can choose, under the Constitution, to promote the common welfare. The founders thought postal service would be a common good we could jointly finance. Lincoln thought a transcontinental railroad deserved support from all of us. Under TR we decided to protect each other from tainted meat, Ike added poultry, and Nixon, eggs. TR also wanted the people to jointly preserve wilderness, and also liked the idea of us all bearing jointly the burden of each other's healthcare, but it would take FDR's Social Security, LBJ's Medicare, and "Obamacare" to get us to the point we've reached. Ike wanted an Interstate highway system. Well... The Constitution allows those things, as affirmed in numerous instances by the arbiter of such things, the Supreme Court.
Lynne Crothers Williams Terry, I agree that many of the things you list are desirable, but desirable doesn't mean there is a federal role in promoting all of them. The Supreme Court has pushed well beyond the constitutional limits of common welfare, bringing the nation, with Congressional and Executive branch complicity, to the brink of bankruptcy. Unless we prioritize and bring spending under control, the country's ability to sustain itself and the programs you list is in serious jeopardy. We are a fiscal house of cards and the wind is blowing.
Terrell Shaw I believe the realities of modern America mean we must finance lots of environmental protection, social safety nets, national infrastructure, and more on a national level. That will take a larger tax burden on those of us who have been most blessed by our system. I am not willing to leave those things to a confusing hodgepodge of 50 state legislatures and thousands of local governments and certainly not to Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim charities or the Red Cross. It is unacceptable to most Americans and IMO impractical to reduce America to the small confederation that you seem to envision. To responsibly finance the nation that most of us want we need to accept tax rates closer to what we had before Reagan and the Bushes.
Lynne Crothers Williams IMO continuing as we are may be the beginning of the end of this great country; it is not sustainable to continue to spend money we don' have. I was around and paying taxes before the Reagan and Bush eras and I doubt that level of taxation would be sustainable to do all that you expect to be done at the federal level. We haven't even gone into the degree of control over individual lives that goes along with multiple programs. We know have to agree to disagree, so I'll wrap up on this one with thanks for the articulate and courteous way in which you've expressed your opinions.