| g21 #314: THE TRAVELER
AMERICAN DREAMS G21 AFRICA G21 BARNES & NOBLE BOOKSTORE G21 Digital Internet Postcards JOIN OUR MAILING LIST. You'll be glad you did. Surveys that affect our look and feel and much more. Be part of the In-Crowd! G21 EUROPE G21 MIDEAST G21 NEWS *GLOBAL BEAT* HOT LINKS IRISH EYES MEMOIRS OF THE INFO AGE MY GLASS HOUSE POWERSSOUND RADIOACTIVE RDR VOX POPULI RECOMMENDED DAILY REQUIREMENT ARCHIVES. LAST WEEK's EDITION MEET THE G-CREW! These are the people behind this jam-band every week. |
I don't mind paying taxes as long as I get good value for my money, but lately I'm starting to think the money I've been handing over to the U.S. government is as big a waste as making payments on a car that didn't run the day you went to pick it up at the used car lot and hasn't spent a full day out of the shop since.
We have this Federal Bureau of Investigation that's supposed to investigate crimes, right? It had agents who got suspicious about foreign flight students who seemed to be up to no good and might have ties to terrorist groups. But there was no investigation. What was the FBI doing if it wasn't investigating? I mean, if you have a Federal Bureau of Investigation and it doesn't investigate, why should I pay for it?
Now let's go to the CIA.
If something called the Central Intelligence Agency can't take information -- intelligence -- from many sources about a direct threat to American citizens here in the U.S.A. and bring all that information together in a central facility where it can be analyzed and perhaps that threat can be averted, why bother to have a CIA?
Why shouldn't we shut the agency down and sell all that prime acreage on Dolley Madison Boulevard in McLean to a developer instead? That money could help pay down some of the budget deficit we've run up paying for an FBI that doesn't investigate and a CIA that doesn't centralize intelligence. Or maybe you could just send that money to me. I would spend it on better things than the CIA. Like bourbon.
The U.S. got attacked.
The Department of Defense failed to defend us.
Maybe the Department of Defense is okay for blowing up caves in Afghanistan where Al Queda leftovers may or may not be hiding, but when bad guys come here, to our country, and destroy buildings and kill people, it seems all the Department of Defense can do is wring its hands and cry, "Oh dear, oh dear," and ask for more money.
If the Department of Defense can't defend us, why have it?
Call it "International Police" or "The American Foreign Policy Enforcement Agency" or something that more honestly reflects what it really does, and cut it down to nothing but those special forces units and jet pilots that are all we see on the news actually doing anything.
Now let's talk about regulating financial markets. We have the Securities and Exchange Commision, a huge bureacracy full of people who are supposed to protect investors against fraud by thieving stockbrokers, corporate managements that line their own pockets at shareholders' expense, and shady accounting firms.
It seems to me the SEC has been doing a pretty poor enforcement job over the last decade or so.
Why have it if it can't protect invstors against shabby security dealings?
Once again, a government body I've been paying for but getting nothing in return for my money.
What can I say? Your friends are right. The U.S. government gives poor value for the money it takes from American citizens and others who choose to live or work in this country.
Now I hear that lots of your corporate friends are moving their headquarters to Bermuda, at least on paper, so they don't have to pay for inept U.S. government services.
How can I blame them?
These corporate chieftains are probably more likely to get taken out by terrorists than I am, and aren't getting defended any better.
But what about me? C'mon, Pres, I work hard and earn a pretty good living. I pay a lot of income tax --- more than Microsoft and half of the other companies that contributed to your campaign put together, even though I don't take in a millionth of the money they do.
You keep talking about free enterprise and letting the market solve problems, and how you are going to run the government like a sensible business. That sounds great.
Now it's time to back the big talk with the big bucks.
Refund all the taxes I've paid over the last decade that went to the indefensible Defense Department, the unintelligent CIA, and the non-investigating FBI, along with the money HUD spent building $250,000 per unit welfare housing in Baltimore while I made do quite happily with a $15,000 house trailer, and all the rest of the money you and your predecessors took from me and wasted instead of giving me -- your customer -- a decent value.
I'll be looking for my check.
I know it won't take long. I've seen that huge Treasury Department building next to the White House, and I've watched all the people pouring out of it at quitting time, so I know you are not short on help, and can take care of this small matter in a day or two.
Thank you in advance for your prompt attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Bradenton, FL, USA - Dear President Bush: I want my money back.
Then comes the big one: The Department of Defense.
Obviously, President Bush, many of your rich buddies from your prep school days feel the U.S. government is such a poor value that they shouldn't have to pay taxes on their multi-million dollar inheiritances to support it, and you have signed this wish into law.
Robin Miller
Bradenton, Florida
WEB SITE PICK OF THE WEEK: You can find a wonderful example of Flash design at the Bom.com Web site. Go learn something!
| MY GLASS HOUSE | THE PREVIOUS EVENT | COMING ATTRACTIONS | THE WRITERS/GUIDELINES | |