More Thoughts on April 15th

I enjoy seeing where tax dollars go. Did you know that there is a book that summarizes this information? For some reason, it is called "The Pig Book" (undoubtedly referring to Dick Cheney and his corrupt war-profits machine), and it has some useful information.

Specifically, here are some programs that make me proud that you pay taxes:

$3,000,000 for the Foundation for Environmental Security and Sustainability, for producing invaluable documents like this:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

2. Persistent hardship and unrest erode societies, jeopardize social order, impair state capacity, undermine the rule of law, and fuel the precursors to violence. For this reason, it is imperative to develop improved assessment tools, both to recognize the harbingers of environmentally induced conflict in their nascent stages and to prioritize and develop coordinated assistance crisis situations.

How true. Even in my personal life, I am continuously developing improved assessment tools to recognize harbingers.

$100,000,000 added by the House for the Even Start program.

Even Start offers promise for helping to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty and low literacy in the Nation...

$100,000,000 for a promise, I feel, is a bargain. Especially since there is no other way of breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty. It is, after all, a cycle. The parents are impoverished, and then the children are. What completes this cycle? When the children's poverty impoverishes the parents! That is why it is a cycle. Regardless, history has shown that poverty can only be eliminated by rich people sharing their wealth. Without a government mechanism for encouraging such transfers, everyone would be poor.

$5,000,000 for The Autonomous Rendezvous and Docking Center of Excellence.

I almost wonder how an entire center of excellence can be funded with only $5,000,000. To be sure, this is evidence of Bush's miserliness.

$26,350,000 for a facility restoration plan in the state of Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Robert C. Byrd, at the Robert C. Byrd Institute for Flexible Manufacturing. Clearly, this is not enough money to "grow" the state and eliminate racism and inequality. I would suggest increased disbursements of Even Start dollars.

In any event, the Federal Budget for 2007 will be about $2,700,000,000,000, which at under $10,000 per person is clearly far too little. Of course, there are also state budgets, local budgets, school district budgets, and inflation to pick up the slack -- but we are clearly undertaxed.

In fact, there are entire sectors of the economy that are still somewhat unregulated. These areas (such as food, clothing, shelter, etc., etc., etc.) cry for taxes, regulation, and complete government control. And until the budget is equal to the GDP (a technical term that you probably don’t understand), I will not rest.

And neither should you. It’s never too late to contribute a little extra to the IRS. How much extra? Well, do you have a savings account? If so, you can and should pay more!