Light Bulb Moments

  A couple of weeks ago, I was pondering why some people are so sure that they pay more in federal income taxes than rich people do. The whole idea was just mind-boggling to me. Then it hit me, that light bulb of understanding that made me realize that people are told that, therefore they believe it. Most people don't do their own taxes, so they don't have personal experience crunching the numbers for themselves. I decided to write an blog post about income taxes, to explain in layman's terms why the rich don't pay less than average people. I threw out the suggestion on Facebook, asked if there would be interest if I took the time to write it, and there was a lot of interest. So, I've spent the last week doing some research.

     In the process of doing research, I realized there are many other connected things that the average person doesn't understand, including me. The entitlement programs of our government have been much maligned, but what are they? What requirements must be met to qualify for them? I know if my neighbor lost their job, was in danger of losing their house, I would be looking for ways to help them. But in the aggregate, it's easy to assume that people are getting benefits they don't deserve. If I don't understand them, I'm betting the majority of Americans don't really understand them either.

     The other light bulb of understanding went off yesterday as I was reading an article about the federal budget. Of course I can't find the article again to cite the source, I thought I had bookmarked it, but my bookmarks are full. The gist of the article was that democrats use tax cuts as bargaining chips to get additional spending approved while republicans use spending approvals to get their tax cuts passed. It's called cooperation and compromise (which there hasn't been much of lately), to "get things done". The real effect of such cooperation has been to reduce federal revenues while increasing spending. Thus, our exploding federal debt. This has got to stop, but to really stop it, both sides of the isle will have to compromise. We need a new type of cooperation, throwing out all previous prejudices, looking for new solutions not just old ones tied up in new string.

    To really solve our debt problems it's going to hurt all of us, and it needs to. There needs to be shared sacrifices, not one group thinking the rich should bail everyone else out, or the other group thinking they shouldn't have to pay for someone's big screen TV and a dozen tattoos. The problem is people on both sides know of people who have cheated the system. Yes, some rich people hide income in tax shelters, but did you know that there are legal tax shelters and illegal ones? The legal ones are there for a reason, and we use them everyday. The government is continually cracking down on the illegal ones, but new ones keep popping up. It isn't always the rich taxpayer that's doing the cheating, they are relying on advice from tax lawyers and accountants, sometimes that advice is bad. On the other hand, some welfare recipients know how to milk the system, have figured out how to get by without looking for work, don't use their benefits for the things they should, etc. etc. To fix the country's debt problems, we need to go forward with an attitude somewhere in the middle.

    I'm going to make my blog post on taxes a series of posts starting with taxes first. Later posts will look in depth at Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, Social Security Disability, Welfare, Food Stamps, Unemployment Benefits. After that, if I'm not tired of writing, we'll see what happens. First, and foremost, I will try to make the posts bipartisan and factual. I want people to read them, not just assume that everything will have a republican slant. I want all to understand.