There has been a lot of discussion this week concerning taxes, and government spending. I think for many of us this conversation can not hold our interest. This apathy is an unfortunate byproduct of a government that has lost the trust of it's people. We see a compromise on the scale that we saw last week and both sides assume that their representatives have sold them out. Sadly, for both sides it is largely true. The reality is that the government is not on our team. When I say "our" I truly mean every American citizen who does not work for the government itself.
The real truth is that the government has ceased to be the necessary support apparatus that it was designed to be. We are now dealing with an enormous entity that demands to be recognized as a power unto itself.
Dial down all of the political rhetoric and think about what is truly being said and what is accepted as "truth". A country as rich as America ought to be able to pay for ______(insert well-meaning program here). Take your pick. Health care. Higher education. World aid. Etc. Etc. This is where the water gets muddy for many Americans. We feel a moral obligation to say yes we ought to be able to extend these things, without asking what it all means.
Where does the American government get it's money? From it's citizens. What would happen if those citizens did not surrender the money asked of them? Imprisonment, garnishment, ceasing of property, or any number of other punishments. (see Wesley Snipes) This is key, in my opinion. Every dollar that the federal government spends, on anything, has been forcibly taken from it's citizenry.
As Americans we are all responsible for what our government does. The power that they possess is given them by the people they have sworn to represent, and whether passively, grudgingly, or enthusiastically we have given them the power to exact a toll on those who live within our borders. Whether that power is constitutional or not can be debated, but it may no longer matter. The precedent has been set and accepted that this is what we want our country to do. The majority of the people feel it necessary in order to maintain an orderly society.
The very fact that we are compelling people, by force, to pay federal taxes comes with it a burden to mete out those funds to only those tasks deemed absolutely fundamental to preserving the sovereignty of the U.S.A. and, the protection of it's people and their freedoms.
Herein lies the rub ladies and gentleman; we have a chosen few elected officials making the decisions over what those fundamentals are. They have the constitution, but still the job is not without gray areas.
When you consider some of the things that the government pays for it is not hard to find things that anyone can agree falls outside these guidelines. This is a simple argument. Do we feel that it is right to take money from our neighbors to pay for our own lives/social projects/charitable causes? Before you answer that, remember that we have laws in place that will strip those same neighbors of their right to personal property and possibly imprison them if they refuse to pay for your lives/social projects/charitable causes.
When we hear "A country as rich as America ought to be able to pay for ______(insert well-meaning program here)." The moral imperative that we ought to feel is "Who are we to force our neighbor to pay for ____(insert college, Union contracts, cowboy poetry, etc. here)."
We cannot afford to forget that power corrupts. If you are not a part of the government's team then you are on our team, and we must be diligent to keep the other in check.
- Posted from my iPhone
