Every last drop.....

**Warning- Sanctimonious Rant to Follow**

As a preface- I will admit I have a very narrow background in accounting and the tax code. If there is some glaring error that I make in the upcoming diatribe when it comes to who is getting screwed, please feel free to lambaste me with a reply.
Apparently we, as a country, are not giving the government quite enough. In essence, a recent Senate vote is kicking up the rates for ANYONE making more than 30K a year (give or take). Some details:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23612342/

And- oh year- there will be no veto on earmarking/pork anytime soon.

Forgive me for being an agitator but- aren't we giving the government enough? Don't get me wrong, I rather enjoy my freeways, social security for grandma, and even our solicitous public servants. But between federal, state, and local real estate tax, I am lucky to clear 55% of my paycheck.

But oh yeah- they allow us to claim the interest on our mortgage loans as tax deductible! Yippie!

I'm not about to do a "Network" type of maneuver, but I'm close. Some of my independence is gently being stripped. I can certainly understand folks that are crying that big business has been sticking it to the little guy for years, and that they should pay their share. I'm all sorts of down with that. But do we really think that the money is in better hands when given to the government?

The recent national administration has shown that there is NOTHING that it wont find money for. I'm not in agreement that there were huge surpluses squandered- as most articles I've read imply that there was some snarky accounting going on. But yeah, an additional 3 Billion added each day in deficits might have SOMETHING to do with the tanking dollar, dontcha think?

Now, to be fair- when it came to earmarking, the only resistance was on the Republican side. I'd have to read more to see if that was just political opportunism/grandstanding or not.

I know that the money isn't just sent into a vacuum. But what truly frustrates me is that there is so little oversight as to where the money goes. As previously posted here, I want to do what I can to help out in some way those children afflicted with cancer. I should be volunteering shortly. Understand, however, that I don't have a lot of disposable income to send their way. Maybe a twenty. That'll help right?

We're in the information age, the world at our fingertips. We know what is going on, almost in an instant. But maybe we're the one's at fault- we are still committed to a two party system, constantly telling ourselves that "well, at least our dopes are better than those dopes on the other side". But the most glaring and frightening aspect of our real time, magnified view is that no one is ponying up to the fact that neither "side" has an answer, and that throwing money at everything, hoping something "sticks", certainly hasn't helped either. Because if they spend money, at least they can say "we are trying", right?