Okay, I'm starting to work on my taxes.  My taxes are complex, due to my having various enterprises, including heading a family business that is based out of state.  My returns are usually several hundreds of pages/forms long.

So, this is the season when I start to hate, hate, hate certain aspects of our government, including how unnessessarily complex our taxes are, how the government spends our money, and how most tax breaks favor the rich.

Let's just talk about government spending:

>>>  I'm on record as being alarmed about the national debt & the record high deficits.  I don't understand how the current administration's view that permanent tax cuts will help.  It just seems to me that tax cuts are the equivalent of quitting your job, running up hugh credit card debts, and spending more & more.  Add to this the fact that average savings in the U.S. has been negative for the past four quarters (meaning that on average, people in the U.S. spent more than they earned).  I just wish that the government would set a fiscally responsible example for its citizens.

>>>  I'm opposed in prinicple to the war in Iraq.  From a fiscal perspective, it is extremely costly, and I feel that those funds could have been more constructively used elsewhere.  Further, it seems that pretty soon (if not already), more U.S. citizens will have died in Afghanistan & Iraq than died in the 9/11 attacks.  I don't see how the Iraq war benefits us, I believe that the war was originally justified on (at best) misinformation (what WMDs?), and that it seems we've replaced an admittedly nasty dictator with a religiously fueled civil war.


So, there's nothing like struggling with taxes to highlight my dissatisfaction.

Not much to do about it but vote. Hey...

NOW THERE IS AN IDEA!!!

Maybe we should move voting day from November to April 16th! I'm thinking my conservative friends might actually like that idea and frankly so do I. Make everybody just a bit more accountable for how they spend OUR money.

Come to think of it, kind of funny how tax day and election day are on opposite sides of the calendar, huh?

Arrrrg! You just reminded me that I am totally screwed this year with my taxes. I made all commission and didn't put nearly enough away for taxes. And because things are slow now I have been taking some of the money I did save just to get by. (. I hate that pit in my stomach every time I think of it.