Spend Wisely

My wife came home this weekend from shopping and with a large smile of satisfaction on her sweet face excitedly exclaimed she had saved $50.00.  How I asked?  Well these shoes were on sale for half off so I only paid $25.00 a pair instead of the regular price of $50.00, so I saved $50.00!  What?  I tried hard to revel in her joy but I finally blurted out “No you spent $50.00″. The look on her face reminded me of the time I tried to explain the theory of torque to her. It just didn’t work. And being that the 2012 tax season is upon us it reminded me of how our Federal government budgets their money, oops, I mean our money.

The one thing most people especially the politicians forget is the Federal Government is funded entirely by tax revenue. It does not produce or sell, anything or even buy toilet paper without our tax contributions.  Maybe that is an idea, maybe the government should start a business like making cars, selling insurance and mortgages?  Wait they did that in the bailouts.  Anyway I love when a Congressman or the President touts that they have cut spending by only spending half of what they planned to.  What?  Let’s look at that this way.  I want a new pickup so I plan on buying a $55,000.00 do all dually, diesel with all the bells and whistles.  But instead I buy a F-150 that cost only $25,000.00.  See I saved a bunch of money.  NO! I still spent 25 g’s. But the important part is where did the money come from to start with, in my case I worked for it.  In Uncle Sam’s case all his nieces and nephews give it to him in good faith.

This is not a new problem in fact it started way back when we were trying to figure out how to pay off our debt for the revolutionary war against Britain when someone pulled the wool over our eyes and began an accountant system to his day (uh taxes) that won’t work for tax payer. In fact since World War I the government has enacted close to 100 new taxes all being paid by us folks who work and pay taxes.  It amazes me that 300 million people allow 535 congressmen to tax our lives without question or accountability.  In the beginning our Congressmen choose to work in service to our country as an honor and duty. Today it is a career. So this year I am writing the same reminder on my tax payment check that I used to tell my kids at allowance time. “Spend Wisely” this is all you get.