It’s Only Just Begun – Again
Deborah Venable
04/24/11
The
presidential campaign of 2012 has begun, believe it or not, far too early once
again. Modern politicians are in
constant campaign mode actually, which leaves little time for them to do
anything truly constructive and too much time to be just the opposite –
destructive as hell!
Okay,
so Obama’s running for reelection. No
surprise there, right? So far there is
only speculation about primary contenders in his own party, but it is a bit
early for that. Anybody really believe
Hillary is out of the game for good?
How about a couple of the more prominent female socialists, uh,
Democrats that might decide now is their time?
A few names cross my mind. As
far as Republicans are concerned, well, could the possible list be any
longer? Most of them are just waiting
to see who the media wants to sink the most before they do anything they can’t
back away from. That is it in a nutshell.
Republicans
must also campaign against the media and they know it. Some folks think Donald Trump is setting
himself up as another Ross Perot, and they may be right, but he has as much
claim on the R behind his name as most of the others anyway. Not quite the same I don’t think.
I
am truly tired of the campaign speeches – especially the Obama style ones – but
it has only just begun. The audacity of
this man’s hope is that he can run on the promise of raising taxes on “the
rich” and win. The pity is that he
probably can!
The
salvation of this country does not hinge on tweaking the tax code, it relies on
eliminating the income tax altogether.
Until we force this issue, we are doomed to languish in debt forever.
Income
tax is simply immoral, destructive, and unconstitutional in the original sense
of our founding. In the present sense
of our economy, it is insane!
The
media are already busy beating the bushes for examples of “rich” folks who
believe in paying more income tax.
These folks are either ignorant, demented, or fully vested in a
socialist/communist agenda that is foreign to the exceptional American
Heritage. The same can be said of those
who pay NO income tax, but they are really not part of this discussion. Those who have never paid income tax have no
dog in this fight. They are already the
big losers, whether or not they even realize it.
As
I always try to do when I write on controversial subjects, I will give
anecdotal evidence to support my own credentials and first hand knowledge of
the subject:
For
much of my married life, (over 37 years) my husband and I fell into the
category of “the rich” in that we were in the top 10% of earners that paid the
bulk of the income taxes. Because we
were risk takers, we found ourselves both at the top and bottom of the wealth
heap multiple times. In other words, we
were financially “wiped out’ on more than one occasion, but managed to climb
right back to a comfortable plateau view from the top so-to-speak. But we were never millionaires.
We
were never “filthy rich” in financial terms, but suffice it to say, we more
than paid our “fair share” in taxes over the years. We met payrolls in multiple businesses, paid tax accountants
exorbitant funds to keep us legally straight, made very good salaries when
working for other people, and still struggled at times to pay enormous tax
liabilities. There were times when we
were barely scraping by and there were other times when we were more than very
comfortable.
My
husband’s devastating illness in the last year of his life wiped us out for the
last time. Our savings were gone, and
our children were supporting us – working long, hard hours and sacrificing
their own futures just to get us by. We
still had a 14 year-old son that last year that we filed our joint income
taxes, and our income was less than $10,000 for the entire year. We made that by taking odd jobs, even while
my husband was ill, and from small royalty payments on a textbook my husband
had co-authored. So, for the very first
time in our lives, we were advised by a tax preparation program to claim the EIC
for that year, (Earned Income Credit) for people with earned income, (which we
had) and minor children (1), which we also had. Our resulting “refund” was a godsend that year. I am fully aware that we “got back” more
than had been withheld from our earnings that year – but it was the first and
only time that happened – and we raised five children! Most other years of our married life, we
wrote a check to the IRS. In other words,
we never “gamed the system.”
My
husband died in October of that year. In
January of the following year I received a notice of audit from the IRS and a
bill for $2,700. It seemed that because
a small portion of our income that year had been in the form of royalty
payments, we were disqualified from receiving the EIC. I was still paying off my husband’s funeral
expense and many other bills, so this one would have to wait. I had numerous conversations with the IRS
and even paid a tax lawyer to tell me that I didn’t have a leg to stand on and
I definitely “owed” the money.
By
the time I got around to making payments on that “owed” tax liability, it had
doubled due to added penalties and interest.
I must hope, at this point, that a couple of people receiving the EIC
this year will at least need it a fraction of the amount we truly needed it
that one year because my payments are now paying for them. Having never cheated on my taxes, and having
always paid much more in the income and FICA taxes than so many more folks who
were much better off than we were over those years, I still have a visceral
hatred, and yes, even fear of that immoral, destructive, and unconstitutional
government entity known as the IRS.
There
are my credentials to prove that I know exactly what I am talking about.
Now, back to the campaign of 2012. It is abundantly clear that Obama is in full
campaign mode, and making political hay out of the current economic crisis by
claiming that we cannot continue to spend more than we take in. (Collectively speaking – the
government.) All the while, he is insisting
on doing precisely that! His answer is
to increase revenue via higher taxes on “the rich” of course. “Shared sacrifice” he calls it. My question, where’s the sacrifice if “the
rich” don’t need so much money anyway, Mr. President?
Sacrifice,
literally, means “the act of offering to a deity something precious –
especially the killing of a victim on an altar.” That’s definition 1 from Merriam-Webster. “Something offered in sacrifice” and
“destruction or surrender of something for the sake of something else” are a
couple of other definitions. Now, I
don’t mean to nitpick here, but just who and where is the deity we are offering
the sacrifice to, and who or what is the victim on the altar, and who or what
is being destroyed or surrendered for the sake of whom or what? Why doesn’t someone call the president and
anyone else who supports income tax increases as “shared sacrifices” on these
points?
I’m
actually retired now, Mr. President, and I still pay taxes, although I do
without things I would rather spend my money on. My “fair” share has always come at the expense of other comforts,
so forget your shame game approach with folks like me as you campaign your way
across this country you are helping to destroy, spending your billion dollars
to get reelected, as you ignore the people’s (your bosses) will. As for your eventual Republican opponent –
Daffy Duck would get my vote!
Here’s
a clue, though, Daffy – campaign on a promise of abolishing the IRS,
eviscerating useless federal programs, and recalling the American Heritage of
exceptionalism, and you WILL beat this guy!
But you have got to really mean it, and then do it!