Filed last night, after spending 10 hours of time that I could have used to create wealth. Most of my tax needs are pretty pedestrian, but I fought with an inexpensive preparation package, had to flag down statements from an old mortgage company after I had paid off the loan, tried a few ways of classifying health insurance during self-employment, the usual stuff. And I am certain by national averages, I got off easy.
What a scam the gub'mint pulled off when they got withholding, what a marketing coup to over-withhold. If we had to write a check this April, we'd elect 80 Republican Senators in November, and none of the porcine GOP house members who helped craft the highway bill.
In Pork Highway the WSJ Ed Page applauds the President for trimming some pork off this bill with a veto threat, but it is still too fatty for professional wrestler on Atkins.
Ronald Utt of the Heritage Foundation notes that "$700 billion (inflation adjusted) of federal highway spending since 1970 has added only 7% to our road system, a performance that makes the proverbial $600 Pentagon hammer a benchmark for cost-effective government."Posted by jk at March 30, 2004 12:47 PM
Not just OVER witholding, JK... witholding period. Imagine if every taxpayer had to consciously face the reality that the money the government takes from them comes directly out of their pocket! "You mean I have to give them more than I spend on food, clothing and shelter COMBINED?! I'd rather have a new home theater than help fund that ___________!" (fill in the pork barrel blank)
Posted by: johngalt at March 30, 2004 02:48 PMI have said for years that they should cancel all withholding and make everyone write a check to the government on November 1st. Then let's see who gets elected.
Posted by: dagny at March 30, 2004 05:28 PMAmen. But all these solutions seem impossible. The tax problem is so intractable because those who would set us free have the most to profit from the status quo.
Down deep, I am a consumption-tax bigot.
1) No record keeping, no filing
2) I don't have to tell the gub'mint how much I make
3) Drug dealers pay their fair share
4) Save and invest all I want in the things I want.
JK I have always been with you on the consumption tax, but had not thought of reason #3. Makes it even more compelling!
$700 billion only added 7% to our road system? 7% of what, miles of roadbed, traffic flow capacity, something else? Certainly federal roads projects are among the most pork laden of bills but this 7% number is meaningless without context. The completion of I-70 through Glenwood Springs, Co was one of the last pieces of the interstate highway system and one of the most costly per mile due to the terrain.
I also always take issue with the $600 hammer type statements, they make good sound bites, but leave out the real story. For example, in my aerospace days I worked on a $5000 bolt. It was 5.5" in diameter, 14" long, hollow, and had two grooves cut into it with a depth tolerance of .0005". It held the landing gear on a widebody aircraft and the grooves were cut to pricise depth based on the strength of the bolt (material from each bolt was tested) such that the bolt would break on a hard landing and the landing gear would fold back and not push up and rupture the fuel cells in the wings. This greatly reduced the risk of fire from a hard landing. The point being that calling it a "bolt" or a "hammer" doesn't mean you can buy one at Home Depot.
Posted by: Silence Dogood at April 2, 2004 09:41 AMI agree on the 7% as being meaningless quantitatively. Qualitatively, however, I think that $600 hammers, pentagon toilet seats, &c., do speak to real problems even if they are not perfect examples.
When I was a lad, the US Army purchased proprietary hardware to calculate artillery ballistics. The young men at the guns would display the expensive, regulation device prominently. But to do calculations, they would whip out a $150 programmable TI calculator.
The highway bill -- just like the energy bill -- stops being about highways or energy, they just become pork collectors.
Posted by: jk at April 2, 2004 10:00 AM