Sunday, April 18, 2010

tax time

I took a break after the drama of the health-care bill. Of course it's not over yet. Wingnut Repubican attorneys-general are planning to take it to court. Yeah, good luck with that.

And then there was the annual tax crisis.
I don't mind paying taxes, but i am really pissed about unemployment benefits being counted as income.
I was getting the benefits because I DIDN'T HAVE AN INCOME!
So the gov't generously gives me some money out of the taxes I and everyone else has ALREADY paid, an amount which is one-third or less of the income I was just making it on in the first place, and then says "Oh, by the way, you better set aside about 15% of that to pay back in income tax."
And do this while you're looking for work in an economy which has been crippled (I'm tempted to use an expression which includes the word"cluster" but I'll refrain) by greedy wall street traders and greedy and/or feckless bankers. And I might add, the crippling was expedited by the failure of the government, which is taking my tax dollars, to regulate the financial industry which caused this mess.
There is only so far a person can cut back. My cat has to eat.

That is my main gripe. I'm not like the Tea-party asshats who rail on about taxation (and funny thing, latest research shows most of them think the taxes they pay are fair—check April 18 NYT and other publications) and how they are supporting the "other half" of the nation. The half (read "black women") that has babies just so they can collect more welfare payments. Right. Has anyone reading this blog (either of you) ever considered that as a good plan for bringing in some extra money for your crack habit?
I'm not saying there isn't fraud in welfare. I'm just saying I don't agree with punishing millions of needy people just to keep a few hundred or thousand from getting few illegal dollars. Go after them sure, put in more safeguards, but let's stop bitching about money going to the poor. We are supposed to be a "Christian nation," according to some, so let's actually follow JC's teaching.

Easy for me to say. These days, I'm one of the poor. Alas, my gender prevents me from popping out a couple of kids so I can enjoy more benefits.

In the meantime, these tax opponents are driving down federally funded interstates in cars which have safety features mandated by the federal government. But by God, let's stop all the taxation which makes this possible.