Why do we pay so many taxes?

[ironglow]

  The various govt agencies have their "conferences" (play time) which have cost us over $ 50,000,000 in recent years..  The price for making this little kindergarten-style line dance video was a mere $10,000 .  I suppose we are to think this somehow improved the performance of the IRS...  Yeah..right!

[Anna]

Why are there so many stars in the sky? Because like that, our idiot legislators belive the tax base
is infinite. While they destroy the same economy that once supported that tax base.
Lets just shoot off our big toe because it won't fit in a boot! And do it for the children.
They could use a good laugh.

[Sourdough]

Because people allow it.

Here in Alaska we pay only property taxes.

many folks are moving from places like New York, and California to prevent paying state income taxes.

[Anna]

The people in town just got a big ole sewer tax. What are they going to do, count all the brown
trout that come down the pike? There's a good job for a former TSA worker.

[mauser98us]

To meet the needs of the entitlement class and to buy votes.

[sr sawyer]

Because it is shoved in both directions
 
Ken

[ironglow]

  Sorry;  I forgot to post a video of the IRS gang making bigger fools of themselves..
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUZTpWEJWU4

[magooch]

Because public servants are not reminded often enough who are the servants and who are the served.  Elected officials think of themselves as leaders and forget that they are merely representatives whose job it is to serve the electorate.

[Conan The Librarian]

We're past the point where you can win elections by pandering to entitlements. This will only serve to increase the number of elections won based on promises to take money from some people and give it to others.
 
Related to the effects of this, Minnesota used to have a solid business culture of entrepreneurism. Take a glance at this article to see where it is now. Taxes and a bad business climate are the reasons:
 
http://www.startribune.com/business/209734101.html
 

[dakotashooter2]

So the government can continue to practice its redundancy..........................

[DDZ]

So we can take care of people like this...

 

The
Tsarnaev Family

 

So now we find out that the entire Tsarnaev family (Dad, Mom, 2 sons & 2
daughters) started receiving government assistance as soon as they set foot in our country. As political refugees they were entitled to settlement assistance from day one. (Section 8 Housing, public healthcare, food stamps
etc.)   Then their stellar older son impregnates and marries the daughter of a doctor, and this new little Muslim family receives 18 months of government assistance.
They only came off welfare after the naive young wife starts working 70 hours a week while husband Tamerlan stays home and builds bombs and plans to kill and injure the very Americans who have paid for his pathetic existence for the past 12 plus years.     A Breakdown of your and my investment into the TsarnaevFamily:     Section 8 housing    Free public healthcare    Food stamps and other EBT transfer payments    Federal Pell Grants for both sons and most likely their daughters as well. (That is $5200.00 per year for each son or daughter who attended a
college.)    City of Cambridge also awarded a $2500 per year scholarship to the younger son. Younger son also reportedly was receiving state college scholarship.     What
did we receive for our investment:     ·Older son was arrested for domestic battery on a former girlfriend.     ·The mother was arrested last year for shoplifting $1600 in merchandise from a Lord & Taylor store. Mother is facing immediate arrest for failure to appear regarding this matter.     ·Then of course we know that the two sons combined to kill four people (3 Americans & a Chinese exchange student), severely injure 100 plus other people, carjacked another victim and only let him live when they found out that he was not an American citizen.     ·Now we have the two pathetic parents who have returned to Russia and are claiming that their poor sons are innocent and are being framed by the same American government that allowed for their pathetic existence the past 12 plus years.

[Cabin4]

So Obama and the democrates can spend it.

[yellowtail3]

so we can pay for the huge salaries/benefits/retirement dollars that are eaten up by our monster military
(plus all the hardware that goes with it)

[sr sawyer]

"yellowtail3",
My son joined the USMC when he was 18. He did three tours overseas, two of which were in Iraq.  He was present and a member of the 3/4 Marines when the statue of Saddam was brought down  (as most of us witnessed on TV in 2003). 
 
He was a single man at the time of his service and even with combat pay he saved a measly amount of money in four plus years of service to buy a mediocre pick-up truck when he got home.  This would hardly qualify as a huge salary.
 
Freedom ain't FREE
 
Ken

[mcwoodduck]

We pay so many taxes because we put a sunset on tax cuts and not on the taxes.
On your phone bill there is a tax that was raised on only the RICH, it is a Penny a month and it was to pay for the Spanish American War.  Every year the government takes in more that it cost to build the Battle ship Maine that started the conflict when it either exploded due to an attack or coal dust. 
Clearly we need ot have it the other way and pass the "needed" tax for a specific period of time to pay for the what ever.
The Garden State PKY was sold as soon as the bonds were paid to build the road the tolls would come down and all the tolls have done is go up, especially after the the bonds were all paid. 

[facetious]

I think that over time  more and more people have come to think that success in life and all the things that come with it are someone else's responsibility not something you have to work for your self and that sometimes it takes longer then thy think. Thy have had things handed to them for so long that thy don't know any other way and we get the bill.

[ironglow]

I guess we are supposed to take a clue from the OWS crowd.
  Study some worthless course of studies for 4 years..then when you've done that.  occupy a public park, act like a filthy, depraved animal and then trash the park..all the while demanding the govt take money that others have earned ..and give it to you..so you can continue with your binge on sex, drugs and Rock & Roll.

[Anna]

so we can pay for the huge salaries/benefits/retirement dollars that are eaten up by our monster military
(plus all the hardware that goes with it)

You mean that monster military that is having to eat cold MRE's? Or all those Navy ships going into
mothball because we don't have the money to fund them anymore?
Or is it the French Navy patrolling most of the seas around Africa now?
Or the Russians who are in number in anything south of the Caribbean?
I know your taking about the Japanese naval build up going on now to control the Pacific Rim!
Wrong military's, you need to subscribe to JANE's so you can get your military's straight. 

[ironglow]

so we can pay for the huge salaries/benefits/retirement dollars that are eaten up by our monster military
(plus all the hardware that goes with it)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
   
  Military pay doesn't seem so out of line, when compared to other federal workers.. workers who may face nothing more challenging on their job, than a broken fingernail ...while much of our military come face to face with an enemy who is glad to die in an attempt to kill them!
   
  Military pay chart:
   http://www.militaryfactory.com/military_pay_scale.asp
     Here are some Gubberemint jobs which start at $47 per hour..working at home..  What Army  or Marine PFC gets $47 per hour, and many a PFC would rather work at home?  http://federaljobs.net/salarybase.htm
 
 The Federal employee pay grade isn't less than the military...
  http://govmil.com/2012/01/0-5-gs-pay-raise-proposed-in-2013-for-federal-civilian-workers/

[yellowtail3]

You mean that monster military that is having to eat cold MRE's?

Yes

Or all those Navy ships going into
mothball because we don't have the money to fund them anymore?

Yes, that one!

Or is it the French Navy patrolling most of the seas around Africa now?

I don't know - are they? What does that have to do with our bloated military?

Or the Russians who are in number in anything south of the Caribbean?

could you rephrase, please? I don't follow your meaning...

I know your taking about the Japanese naval build up going on now to control the Pacific Rim!

Well, I know the diff between your and you're. Anyhow... I've not talked about the Japanese Navy, but I could. Japan doesn't have a navy. Japan has a Maritime Self-Defense Force (but it's a pretty good imitation of a navy)

Wrong military's, you need to subscribe to JANE's so you can get your military's straight.

I've not owned a copy in years, but I've owned a couple in the past, and I'll bet I've spent more time in it over the past 40 years than you have.

  Military pay doesn't seem so out of line, when compared to other federal workers.. workers who may face nothing more challenging on their job, than a broken fingernail ...while much of our military come face to face with an enemy who is glad to die in an attempt to kill them!

Actually, Ironglow, most of our military risks little more than broken fingernails. Point is... it's very, very expensive, and personnel costs are extremely high. This has been true for a long while now.

[Sourdough]

The military is expensive, but it's always been expensive, and we have kept it.  Only when it was neglected by people like Carter, did it fail.

The bloated unneeded parts of the Federal Government are what needs to go.  Things like the US Fish and Wildlife, who has an annual budget 3.32 Billion (08).  What do they do?  They duplicate and interfere with the State Departments Of Fish And GAME.  The States need to be allowed to manage their own wildlife without government interference.  US Fish and Wildlife needs to be abolished.  The Department Of Education, who's budget is $23.4 billion.  The country got along just fine with out them till Jimmy Carter signed the law creating them on Oct 17, 1979.  They too need to go away.  The Department of Health and Human Services, with a budget of $972 Billion needs to be cut way back or abolished all together.  The IRS, with a $12 Billion budget is another agency needing to be abolished.  Farm Subsidies, the US government pays out around $20 Billion a year for farmers not to grow crops.  This needs to be stopped.  The National Park Service, they cry they do not have enough money to maintain the parks they have, yet they are also crying for more land to be turned into National Parks, Preserves, and Refuses.  They have an annual budget of over $2 Billion.  We have too many Parks, already.  We need to trim them down and get rid of some that should never have been turned into parks in the first place.

Those unneeded agencies and programs would save the American Taxpayer over $1.2 Trillion a year.  What a savings for bloated government that is not needed.  So quite picking on the much needed military.  Other government is the problem.

[gypsyman]

Come on guys/gals, quit picking on yt3. Maybe the only excitment he gets is to see who he can get excited. gypsyman

[SHOOTALL]

We workers are paying more taxes because less people are working. There is nothing wrong with sewers , water , trash PU etc. It's the extra fluff that is causing the problem.

[ironglow]

                                           The Preamble to the constitution of the United States
        We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish    justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote    the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our    posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
 
  The OP is about why we must pay so many taxes:
      Interestingly, I see where the constitution requires that the federal government set up a military sufficent to protect the people and assure confidence for American diplomatic efforts.   
    However, I see no mention in the constitution.. of welfare, WIC, pell grants, Headstart, free cell phones, experiments with shrimp on treadmills, financing "global warming" schemes, buying out auto companies or giving free medical, social and financial benefits to illegal aliens. etc, etc

[SHOOTALL]

It's that old COMMERCE clause .....................

[yellowtail3]

Come on guys/gals, quit picking on yt3. Maybe the only excitment he gets is to see who he can get excited. gypsyman

Am I being picked on? (shrug) - hadn't noticed.


Is discussion of military expeditures verboten, or what? Are there some dingalings who still think that if we question $$$ going to military, we're a communist? Or fascist, or Muslim, or whoever the enemy de jour happens to be? Nutballs...


the us military is one of the reasons we pay such taxes. It's one of the Big Three, along with Medicare/Medicaid, and Social Security.
Here you go - which one do you want to axe?

[Soilman]

Yep, the military does have an expense to it.  Question: What kind of price do y'all put on your freedom?
I go with that old credit card commercial myself, as I expect most you you do as well.

[ironglow]

It's certainly OK to question our expenditures on defense..but all too often those who question our (constitutional) defense expenditures..are seldom heard questioning all the freebees which are being handed out.
  Please note that pie chart...there is 30% labelled "everything else"  or "other mandatory"...Indeed, what is included in that 30%   ?
    ..Let's work on that huge piece of pie which the chart compilers preferred not to itemize..  It rather makes one question the validity of their chart, doesn't it !

[yellowtail3]

    ..Let's work on that huge piece of pie which the chart compilers preferred not to itemize..  It rather makes one question the validity of their chart, doesn't it !

I think the one I charted show where the biggest chunks are going. If you think it's the product of Muslim Communists and Libruls... well, feel free to post your own, more detailed chart. The point is - and I think this is the truth - most of the budget goes to things are that aren't easily cut - wouldn't you agree?


Take a look at this one... note the stuff in gold on the right, discretionary spending:




Below is pie of discretionary spending - where do you want to start cutting,
and how much will that relieve what we're paying in taxes?

[Oldshooter]

I agree with yt3! its the military, now do I think we need less military, Nope! Do I think the military and government spending should be more carefully scrutinized, Yep!