The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 3 of 19)

Far too many people see Social Security and Medicare as investments in "their" future and not as taxes. They are taxes pure and simple. I and tens of millions of others who have worked their entire life to get where we are today subsidize the bulk of the Welfare State benefactors and there is no end to its increasing burden for generations to come. Somebody has to pay and I know precisely who is paying and who is getting the primary benefit of my labor.

Even with a house mortgage I paid enough in Federal and State income last year to fully fund a full time minimum wage worker or 2-3 illegal aliens. When I can marry my favorite Cat I'll cut my income burden 45% or enough to buy a new car every 5 years with cash, max out my 401K contributions and retire early, get the benefit of three years of post tax raises every year. Adopting the other two I have would drop my burden 55%. Only in Washington DC and various State Capitals is $5500.00 not real money.

No amount of economic growth is going to outgrow the increasing burden of all these creeping wealth transfer programs and the sloth that breeds in a portion of our citizenry. Somebody has to pay for all the wealth transferred to the tens of millions that didn't earn it. That seems to be lost on those elected to office that earn 4 times the median income, can vote themselves a raise and have the Golden Parachute of Retirement plans. I'm not anti-government but the financial burden all this compassionate government brings to my backside isn't being shared by those that receive the bulk of the benefits generation after generation.

p>I just can't wait till the Government mandates an increase in my wages to pay for all that it steals from me to give to others. br> -- Thom Bateman br> Newport News, Virginia /p> p> BRAWLER STRATEGY br> Re: R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.'s Barroom Reflections : /p>

I am trying to understand the point of the column. Is it satire, or serious?

topics:
Taxes, Education, Trade, Business, Social Security, Satire, Religion, Islam, Abortion, Books, Constitution, Law, Iraq, NATO, Fascism, Unions, Medicare