Too Poor to Cheat

President Barack Obama has warned the nation's mayors not to waste the stimulus money that is coming their way. HAAAAAA! He evidently forgot that he was talking to politicians. This money will be spent on studies, experts, consultants and repaying the cities for things that they have already built. Oh, and let's not forget keeping municipal workers working. Who the heck is looking out for the guys and gals who are just getting by? No one, that's who. I was just estimating our 2009 federal and state taxes due next year. It is something I do at the beginning of the year, so as not to be unpleasantly surprised by a huge tax bill. For every hour that I work at the hardware store, I get to keep $7.13 after sending the various governments their share. Hardly worth it. I could make that much doing odd jobs once in awhile. What kind of country is it when working makes no sense? Overall, the governments get 24 cents over every dollar Mrs. Sneed and I earn in payroll and income taxes. Our employers kick in another 7.5 cents. That's before we get hit with the sales tax of nearly 9 cents on every dollar we have the audacity to spend. Of course, there are always the additional taxes on spending for things like gasoline and utilities. It never stops. It is no wonder that the country is full of small time operators who evade taxation by dealing in cash and not reporting their full income. Nearly every handyman and other independent tradesman, is fudging on his taxes. Speaking of fudging on their taxes, I noticed that the government thinks that 52,000 high-rollers may be using the Swiss to hide their real incomes. UBS, the Swiss banking giant has been colluding with the richy-rich to set up off-shore corporations to disguise their income. This leaves a burden that the rest of us have to pick up. If you meet a really rich person, be sure to thank them for being stinking cheats. We really need a different way to finance the government. Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky