Some years ago, a magazine publisher named Steve Forbes was running for president. His main pitch wasn’t how he was going to work for world peace or protect the good old U.S. of A. from all enemies foreign and domestic.
Nope, his main pitch was that every American would be able to file his or her federal income taxes by filling out a postcard.
Sign me up.
I just finished filling out the federal and state tax forms for my wife and me, and I’m feeling a bit — How should I say this? — abused.
Thank goodness I used a popular tax preparation software, or else I’d still be scribbling arithmetic trying to figure out the damage.
My wife and I took great care last year to keep track of every penny that came in and went out. Plus, I had a little dab of heart surgery, so I was thinking Uncle Sam or Governor Tina might help out.
Nope. By the time everything was said and done, I really could have put everything on a postcard, pasted a stamp on it and called it a tax year.
Funny thing about taxes. I don’t mind paying them. I know for a fact that 2.95 million federal employees don’t work for free. I can’t vouch for all of them, but I’d be willing to bet that most of them earn their keep.
The same goes for the 45,000 folks who work for the state of Oregon. I’m sure there are a few slackers, but the vast majority are pulling their weight, and maybe a little bit more.
What I balk at is jumping through a bunch of hoops to get to the point where I know how big a check to write.
By the time I pushed the final button, our federal and state tax returns were 49 pages. There were schedules and lists and calculations that would make my high school math teacher swoon. The governments knew our Social Security number, address, phone number and — interestingly enough — our adjusted gross income from last year. The only thing they left out was my shirt size.
But I’ll go along with the program. I want the federal and state governments to have enough money to pay their bills. Though the state can’t run a deficit — the Oregon Constitution won’t let the legislature run a tab — the federal government is a whole other story. Last year, the federal government took in $4.8 trillion and Congress spent nearly $6.2 trillion. It borrowed the difference by issuing bonds, which are loans.
The Government Accountability Office fired up its abacus and found that, overall, the federal government owes bond holders $33.2 trillion. That’s something like $100,000 for every man, woman and child in the country.
In other words, too darn much.
There’s an economic theory that’s been making the rounds for a while called modern monetary theory. In short, it says that if the “social value” outweighs the cost, go for it and don’t worry about the debt. It’s the functional equivalent of how some people view credit cards: If it feels good, spend it.
The only problem is that our kids and their kids and the kids after that will be stuck with the bill.
And that’s awful. Right now, the interest payments alone on the federal deficit are something like $659 billion a year.
I’m paying my share, all 49 pages of it. I just wish Congress would tap the brakes on its spending habit. None of us can afford it.
Carl Sampson is a freelance editor and writer. He lives in Stayton. His books, A Bushel and a Peck, and Arctic Sunrise, are available on Amazon.com.
