Just filed my income tax returns.
I am not happy.
My money will be going to fund the superstate and its many transgressions. My money will be going to people I don't like or mostly don't know. It will help pay for illegal aliens to go to school; pay for food stamp programs to be advertised in Mexico; fund abortion clinics and leftwing public broadcasting; provide guns to drug cartels; suppress dissent at home; listen to every phone call made in America; and, of course, to pay for six out of seven persons now allegedly enrolled in Obamacare.
And, yes, I am paying for Michelle "Toned Arms" Obama to go on vacation in Spain, Martha's Vineyard, Hawaii, and China. That's on me. Blame me. Go ahead. My wife does. My wife wants to go on vacation to Spain, but she can't because I have to pay for Michelle's vacation.
I am delighted to pay for our armed services and for the procurement of the meanest, and baddest weapon systems, but this other stuff . . . no, I am not.
This is one time when I take comfort in earning only a mid- to low-middle class salary. My contribution to the federal fisc would poosibly get Michelle & entourage all the way from D.C. to Baltimore. Maybe that far. But only if they took Amtrak. :)
ReplyDelete*possibly*
DeleteArkansas' Riceland Rice sends via me their "thank you very much" - with the recent passage of the Farm Bill their subsidy went up 40%.
ReplyDeleteEr, you do like rice don't you?
Arkie
In case you'd care to send "thank you" emails to producers nearer your location:
Deletehttp://farm.ewg.org/
Ark
Hey, if you lived in a certain county back east, you'd be paying property taxes to support one of your loyal fans--namely me, since I teach school.
DeleteAnd I thank you for what you've paid that came down to me in my capacity as a sub-sub-contractor in Chinese document translation for ultimate SSA and DoD end use.
Thanks, Arkie.
DeleteAn interesting read, that.
Jack (mostly just lurking about, these days)
After sinking all my money into raising dental floss (global warming is the future in floss) now people (You Arkie) are going to ruin me with this "transparency in government" movement madness! Oh, by the way thank you Mr. Mad for your insightful personal donation. I shall send you a complimentary roll from this years crop.
DeleteJames the Lessor
James, dental floss? Frank Zappa fan are you? Me too.
Deletewhitewall: Yeah, I got the Z'ssss alright. Zappa, Zevon, Zandt!
DeleteWhat you have here Bob is the basic gripe of all taxpayers everywhere, that is when taxes are paid the government thinks it is theirs to do with as they wish according to ideology, as opposed to what the taxpayers want such as hospitals, schools, roads and infrastructure.
ReplyDeleteIn Australia we give billions of taxpayers hardearned away in Foreign Aid for the most part to countries that don't like us, envy our successes but will still take the money despite the fact they wouldn't piss on us if we were on fire. How much foreign help did we get during our recent disasterous bushfires? In round figures - none.
PF one of our traits has been not to ask for help but to give it freely.
DeleteIf nobody wants to step up to the crease when we are in a spot of bother that's fine by me.
I do agree that our Foreign Aid is out of control. There are some very fine mansions built in Dhaka, Bangladesh [and I daresay elsewhere], on yours and my tax money.
Sounds like you folks in Oz do the same as us here in the States. We send money to people that hate us, and if we send enough, some of them will even burn our flag in gratitude on camera.
DeleteWhitewall:
DeleteThat's an interactive cross cultural exchange performance art piece, not just some old flag burning, please.
ditto for America, in spades, mate.
ReplyDeleteLibertyGrace'sGrandma
Thanks for the shout-out to bad (meaning, I presume, good) weapons systems, which pay my salary. We flatter ourselves that in supporting our boys in blue, olive drab, and various shades of camo--okay, girls too--we are supporting a (the?) good part of the government.
ReplyDeleteAlpha the quote from Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus that "If you want peace prepare for war" is as true today as it was in the days of Rome. The "bigger and badder" our weapons systems are the more likely we are to be left in peace. Pity that western politicians don't have it engraved on their foreheads [or any other bodily part they have to look at each day] as they seem to forget it from time to time and it costs us dearly in the lives of our young service personnel before they are jolted back into reality.
DeleteDear Mr. Mad,
ReplyDeleteOn behalf of our gracious host, Uncle Sam, I wish to voice a fond thank you for the level of generosity you have displayed towards us, "The undocumented citizens of America." Truly, we are thankful for the individual amounts that you have supplied. I would like to approach you concerning my two oldest sons, Hector and Jorje. Next year they're going to graduate from college and will need new cars to replace their older model vehicles - is there something you could do to help with that? Anything you could give would help out.
My oldest set of twins wish to thank you for the help with their wedding plans. Their husbands were let out of prison early and they have all moved back home. My sons-in-law expressed their desire to return to the this land (to settle scores) but I doubt they can transport all of the grandchildren in one journey.
Please keep thinking of us, and send money whenever you can. Yes, I agree with you - more is always better.
Your Close Friend, Carlos
Who is John Galt?
ReplyDelete#8
For all the misdirected spending of the USG, what really hurts me the most is the rent-seeking behavior of certain politicians in Washington. How does a man of modest means become a multi-millionaire on a Senator's salary? There are 100 people in Washington who could answer that question from personal experience.
ReplyDeleteWell F,
DeleteI can't extrapolate - or extend - from what I'm seeing on the State-level Tea Party (the Go To Washington DC Tea Partyist more honest but mostly - Apparent).
However - and you Dip followers/readers in other States, check for yourselves - anyway in my own State/District Senator got far far far more off the public tit (& Yes you Dip) than did all the Food Stamp Recipients in the same District.
Tea Party Republican incidentally,
2007 $7,364
2008 $22,397
2009 $23,802
2010 $21,725
2011 $28,704
2012 $714
In her four years as a Tea Party Republican in office it appears USDA subsidized the office-holder at 280% over what her family farm earned on the out-years.
Fulton County Arkansas in 2013 also received a $2.76M USDA grant for (since built) new county jail.
____________________________
I'm pretty sure this is happening all over America
Diplomad's mentioned/written on it too much himself:
http://www.areawidenews.com/story/2064176.html
http://www.areawidenews.com/story/2064191.html
" How does a man of modest means become a multi-millionaire on a Senator's salary? There are 100 people in Washington who could answer that question from personal experience."
ReplyDeleteJust lucky I guess. Even Lyndon Johnson managed to do it.
@ Popular Front
ReplyDeleteI do believe that New Zealand sent firefighting teams to help out.
They were already on the pogie in Melbourne. So they didn't have far to travel.
DeleteI avoided the April 15 filing deadline by doing my taxes early last month. I pay quarterly estimates and it seems my estimates were way too low this year. My accountant said I would need my "big boy" check book to settle up. All my income is classified as "unearned" income. I said, "so you mean like in Washington"?
ReplyDeleteTo aid in recovery, I did the only proper thing I could do...I took off for Florida and spent an entire week fishing.
Mrs. Truman spent her free time in Missouri. Harry Truman presided over some of the most consequential diplomacy of the post war period. He traveled abroad 3x in 8 years: once on a courtesy visit to Canada, once on a courtesy visit to Mexico, and once for the Potsdam Conference.
ReplyDeleteThe President's travel requires 4 aeroplane's worth of entourage and equipment. He has a clanking mass of 'dignitary protection' at all times because flacks insist on broadcasting his every move (something not done in Israel or the UK). At least since 1969 if not earlier, there has been an 'official photographer' following him around snapping pix.
At least they've elected to remove the bodyguards a decade after his departure from office, motivated perhaps by the observation that Richard Nixon got on without them the last half-dozen years of his life and the absurdity of 37 years worth of security for Lady Bird Johnson (evidently protecting her from assassination by people who despise wildflowers). Instead, the National Archives manages vanity museums and archives for each and every one (one of which is housed in a double-wide in Little Rock), with the excuse that the sunk costs are financed by lecture-circuit buckraking ($189,000 for 50 minutes of the Big He).
A brief aside....Mad Vlad is officially divorcing his long time wife in favor of a younger woman. Now we know why the shirtless photos, martial arts demos and the handling of weapons on camera...the poor old man is having a mid life crisis.
ReplyDeleteHe seized Crimea to impress Olga . . . a new Russian novel.
DeleteI'll be sharing some of this blame too DiploMad. My wife and I got hit with a ginormous tax bill. In addition to all the programs you mention both of us we'll be funding, the additional kicker is this was a result of my wife being laid off last year and being forced to cash-in her 401K. Talk about being kicked when we're down.
ReplyDelete