Rising Taxes and the U.S. Deficit

I remember when we could make purchases without having taxes added to the price.

I remember when we received the total amount of our wages without any deductions.

I remember when vehicle registrations cost little more than the cost of the license plates.

In those days, the wages you earned were all yours, and the prices of goods had no extra costs added on.

There were income taxes then, but I didn’t know anyone who earned enough money to have to pay the tax.

In 1933, employees started paying 1% of their wages toward Social Security and government began to realize that they had been getting peanuts by just taxing the rich.

Gradually the middle- and low-income people were hit with taxes that grew and grew. We now pay heavily when we earn, when we own and when we spend.

One would think that, with government taking such a big percent of our income, the government would be in solid financial condition.

However, as government revenue increased, more ways were found to spend the money. Government employees started getting higher and higher wages and costly benefits. Billions of dollars are handed out, much of it for political reasons.

We now have state and local governments struggling to make ends meet, and the federal government is over $4 trillion in debt with that figure constantly growing.

If you laid 4 trillion dollar bills end to end, they would reach to the sun and back twice, to the moon and back twice and there would be enough left over to circle the Earth more than 3 million times.

Do Americans really hate their grandchildren so much that they continue to elect people who increase this debt for our children and grandchildren to repay?

If we love our country and our grandchildren, it is imperative that we demand that those who represent us in Washington stop deficit spending and start reducing this terrible debt.

BOB DINSEN

Garden Grove