Department of Offense

Story Published: Mar 22, 2011

Copyright 2011 Charles J.. Sykes, from my upcoming book, A Nation of Moochers, from St. Martin’s Press.

My 401K is down 40%, my employer just cut the match; and it looks like I may have work until I’m 70 years old. I also pay for pensions to public employees who retired in their 50s. I don’t have enough money to go on vacation this year, but I paid my share of the federal government’s $2.6 million grant to teach Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly.

I pay for bridges to nowhere.

I drive a 1997 Honda Accord, but I had to pay for my neighbor’s $41,000 electric car.. I also bailed out the United Auto Workers. I contribute to my children’s 529 college savings plan, but since I don’t qualify for financial aid I pay for other people’s kids to go to school as well. I also pay for the sociology classes where I am sneered at for my lack of social conscience and denounced as the very essence of greed, racism and environmental insensitivity.

I exercise regularly, watch my cholesterol, and pay for my own health insurance as well as co pays and deductibles. I also pay for Other People’s tonsillectomies, appendectomies and occasional rhinoplasties. I pay taxes for Medicare, Medicaid and for various medical programs for poor children and now I will get to subsidize the health care of several million more non-elderly, non-impoverished Americans.

My small business just lost its line of credit, but I paid to bail out Citicorp, AIG, and Goldman Sachs, whose executives get bonuses bigger than my entire net worth.

I pay my mortgage, but I also pay to bail out banks who made risky loans and yuppies, who have trouble paying $700,000 mortgages on their McMansions they bought with no-down payment, adjustable rate deals.

I pay for groceries for my family, but also pay millionaire farmers not grow stuff like rice. I buy dinner for more than 41 million food stamp recipients (although, they now call it Food Shares). I also pay for school lunches. And breakfasts, since other parents apparently can’t be expected to feed their kids. I get to have red meat once a week, but I get to pay for urban hipsters to buy organic salmon at Whole Foods..

I pay my electricity and gas bills, but I also pay for other people’s air conditioning, cell phones, digital televisions, new windows, subsidized rent, and remodeling.

I pay for my daughter’s ballet lessons, but also pay for universities to develop computerized choreography programs that will help develop “interactive dance performances with real-time audience interactions.” I probably won’t be able to make the show, since I’ll be working. I’m trying to save enough money in case I lose my job, but I pay for more than 70 different means-tested poverty programs.

Because I work hard and am successful, I am in the 10% of Americans, who now pay more than 71 percent of the total federal income tax burden. The top 50 percent of earners pay 97.11 percent. In others words, the bottom half of American earners– theoretically 50 percent of the electorate – pay less than 3 percent of federal income taxes. I pay for them.

I pay property taxes, sales, excise taxes, taxes on my phone, my cable, my water; state income taxes, Social security and Medicare taxes. I also help pay the bills for the nearly half of households who no longer pay any federal income tax. I also pay the bills for the 60 to 70 percent of households who receive more from the government than they pay in.

I expect no gratitude for any of this; it has been years since the term “provider” was a matter of societal respect and personal pride. I understand that the transfer of wealth from makers to takers is seen as morally purer than the efforts of those who created wealth in the first place.

I know my role.

I am the piggybank.

$1,000,000,000
How many zeros in a billion?
This is too true to be funny.

The next time you hear a politician use the
Word ‘billion’ in a casual manner, think about
Whether you want the ‘politicians’ spending YOUR tax money.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend,
But one advertising agency did a good job of
Putting that figure into some perspective in
One of its releases.

A.
A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
B.
A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
C.
A billion hours ago our ancestors were Living in the Stone Age.
D.
A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.
E.
A billion dollars ago was only
8 hours and 20 minutes,
At the rate our government
Is spending it.

While this thought is still fresh in our brain…
let’s take a look at New Orleans …
It’s amazing what you can learn with some simple division.

Louisiana Senator,
Mary Landrieu (D)
Is presently asking Congress for
250 BILLION DOLLARS
To rebuild New Orleans. Interesting number…
What does it mean?
A.
Well .. If you are one of the 484,674 residents of New Orleans
(every man, woman, and child)
You each get $516,528.
B..
Or… If you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans, your home gets $1,329,787..
C.
Or… If you are a family of four….
Your family gets$2,066,012.

Washington, D. C
HELLO!
Are all your calculators broken??
Building Permit Tax
CDL License Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax (Fed)
Federal Unemployment Tax (FU TA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)
IRS Penalties(tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Tax
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service charge taxes
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Tax (Truckers)
Sales Taxes
Recreational Vehicle Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Tax
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Utility Tax
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax
(And to think, we left British Rule to avoid so many taxes)

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago…..
And our nation was the most prosperous in the world.
We had absolutely no national debt…..
We had the largest middle class in the world…..
And Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

What happened?
Can you spell:
‘POLITICIANS!’

And I still have to Press ‘1′
For English.

I hope this goes around
The U S A
At least 100 times

What the hell happened???

Feds Look at Technology to Disable Your Cell Phone in Your Car
Posted on November 16, 2010 at 11:58pm by Scott Baker Print » Email » It’s been no secret that Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood would stop all drivers from talking on cell phones if he could. And now we have a clearer picture of what he may have in mind. On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program Tuesday, LaHood started talking technology:

“There’s a lot of technology out there now that can disable phones and we’re looking at that,” said LaHood on MSNBC. LaHood said the cellphone scramblers were one way, and also stressed the importance of “personal responsibility.”

The hosts of Morning Joe pushed the secretary about the possibility of requiring scrambling technology installed in vehicles.

“I think it will be done,” said LaHood. “I think the technology is there and I think you’re going to see the technology become adaptable in automobiles to disable these cell phones. We need to do a lot more if were going to save lives.”

This is frightfully dense in a number of different ways. Let’s count them up, shall we?

The scrambler would also affect the passengers in a car that want to use their cell phones, which doesn’t do anything to improve public safety.
The presence of multitudinous scramblers in autos driving in a city will likely render cell phones used by pedestrians useless as well, or at least unreliable.
Adding more required equipment to cars will make them more expensive, and increase the value of used cars without the scramblers.
People who want to make calls from their cars or allow their passengers to do so will likely hold onto current vehicles longer.
Anything installed in a car can be disabled by the owner, especially electronics. Will car owners have to submit to random searches, or annual verification of scrambler functionality? Will the federal government make that yet another unfunded mandate on the states?
People also get distracted by eating, reading printed material, and applying make-up. Shall we ban drive-through restaurants, newspapers, and cosmetics, too?