Income Taxes

I've spent the afternoon poring over my annual accounting to Caesar.  Milady and I are solidly middle class, I'm a cop, she's a registered nurse.  We both draw a small retirement check from our time working for the state and we both work full-time so we don't have to live as paupers.

Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful for what I have and what I can earn.  Still, it seems that we send a whole lot of money to the Government for very little return.  This year I'll pay more in taxes than what I earned some years when I was pore and starvin' and raising kids.

Oh, and for the record, I got notice today from the state that my federal withholding has increased on my tiny  little retirement check.  If Obama's trying to help retirees he's going about it all wrong.

Every year about this time I am re-invigorated in my conclusion that if Federal Withholding was abolished, and folks had to write quarterly checks to the .gov for taxes, there would be a general taxpayer revolt in this country, and we'd see tar, feathers, and rails on the streets of Washington.  Our Congress and President would not have to worry about saving a trillion dollars over the next 10 years, they'd have to worry about saving several trillion dollars THIS YEAR.

I am sickened at the amount of money I send to Washington, and it's a damned shame that I can't keep more of it to put into my checking account.