The American Spectator

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Special Report

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My local telephone bill takes the cake with a federal access charge, a federal universal service fund charge, a federal charge for service provider portability, a 9-1-1 emergency surcharge, a school infrastructure tax, federal tax, and one more state/local tax for good measure. Is it any wonder people are switching in droves to cell phones?

WHAT DO I GET for all the taxes that I pay? I get the protection of the police, fire department, and military, for one. I also get to use the roads, although the gas tax pays for roads and, as noted above, the gas tax is not included in my tax bill.

Since I'm not 65, I receive no Social Security or Medicare. Since I am not poor, I receive neither welfare nor Medicaid. I have no children, so public schools are of little benefit. Nor do I receive any farm subsidies, corporate welfare, or National Endowment for the Arts grants. In short, much of my income goes to government programs that do not directly benefit me.

While few would dispute that government must perform some functions, it is reasonable to ask how many of those functions are necessary. Society would not fall apart if we did away with corporate welfare, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or farm subsidies.

Then there is the issue of fairness: As a group, seniors are the most affluent in our society. Why should a worker be required to pay for the retirement and health care of those seniors who are not indigent? And even for those services that are necessary, we need to ask what we are getting for our money. For example, we've spent more and more tax money on education over the last 30 years, but we have little to show for it.

Thanks largely to the Bush tax cuts the tax burden has declined in recent years. According to the Tax Foundation, Tax Freedom Day -- the day when Americans have earned enough money to pay their total annual tax bill -- came on April 11 this year. That's down from May 2 in 2000. That means, according to their calculations, that after three successive tax cuts, government is taking more than one dollar in four of our income.

topics:
Taxes, Education, Health Care, Social Security, Medicaid, Military, Medicare