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Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Terry Jeffrey :: Townhall.com Columnist
How Big Can Government Get?
by Terry Jeffrey
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Much attention has been paid in recent months to the mortgage crisis and the difficulty many Americans face because they bought or built a home they cannot afford.

But Americans must soon face a greater crisis: We have a built a government we cannot afford.

Three studies published this year put some perspective on just how big our government has grown, and how much bigger it could grow in the near future.

Every year, the Tax Foundation puts out a report on Tax Freedom Day, the day Americans stop working for the government and start working for themselves. The foundation has a simple formula for figuring when this occurs: It determines what percentage of the total national income is consumed by local, state and federal government in taxes. It then calculates how many days equal the same percentage of a 365-day year.

In 2008, government will tax away 30.8 percent of the national income. An equal percentage of the year is 113 days. That means Americans were compelled to work from Jan. 1 to April 23 of this year just to pay taxes.

That is more than six times as long as Americans worked a century ago to pay taxes.

In 1909, according to the Tax Foundation, total taxes absorbed 4.9 percent of national income. That meant Americans only had to work until Jan. 19 to cover the combined levies of government. They worked almost all year for themselves.

By 1940, on the eve of World War II, government had more than tripled. That year taxes equaled 17 percent of national income. Tax Freedom Day came on March 7.

By 1945, when World War II ended, government was taking 24.2 percent of national income. Tax Freedom Day did not come until March 30.

This trend of government taxing away an ever-larger share of the national income did not stop after the war. The postwar era saw some ups and downs in the trend, but the long-range trajectory was up.

Government, the Tax Foundation notes, is now the most expensive thing in our lives. "Americans will work longer to pay for government (113 days) than they will for food, clothing and housing combined," says the Tax-Freedom-Day report. "In fact, Americans will work longer to afford federal taxes alone (74 days) than they will to afford housing."

Federal government is a heavily mortgaged McMansion burdening us all. Continued...
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About The Author

Terence P. Jeffrey is the editor-in-chief of CNSNews

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Reply # 1
Date: Jul 25, 2008 - 10:54 AM EST
Taxed and Policed (cont.)


...their churches were all teaching Liberation Theologies, which is Marxism masked by the church. Does everybody is this idiot government believe that all these good little unskilled or skilled workers are docile? If they do, they better go to the nearest shrink and be examined for sanity. Has anybody heard of the MS-13 gangs coming here and taking over the inner city streets with their violence, drug dealings, murders, etc.? These south of the border thugs even make our homegrown thugs, who are products of the welfare state, scared to go on the streets that they used to reign supreme with their own brand of illegal activities, and terror. We need to end all newcomers having an open door to enter this country with no barriers. Then, we need to begin rounding them up if they are here illegally and send them back with whatever means necessary. Then, we need to end the visas from so-called guests, and all the rest. After they are all out of the country, then we can set about building borders again. A nation is defined by common borders, language, culture, traditions, values and loyalty to these things. None of this is being practiced by these invaders, and in fact, we are becoming a third world country ourselves. END ALL IMMIGRATION NOW, AND GET THE ONES ALREADY HERE OUT. I know if this government is able to control where this writer smokes a cigarette and enforce that law with an Iron Fist, it could police this problem. They do not do it because they profit too much themselves from the payoffs they received from contributors who profiteer from the illegals. Employers pass on the costs of hiring workers and giving them benefits by letting You and Me, the Taxpayer, pasy for their health care, and other costs associated with having employees. And the illegals do not pay other taxes that the American worker has to pay. GREED IS Behind This Mess. Just FOLLOW THE MONEY TRAIL>>>>
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Reply # 2
Date: Jul 25, 2008 - 10:50 AM EST
Citizens Are Taxed and Policed
While We Citizen Taxpayers are Taxed and Policed, How About Illegals and Criminals Generally??

And we are currently, as we speak, TEN TRILLION DOLLARS IN DEBT, as a nation. No nation in the world has ever had this much debt, and these worthless so-called leaders of this country, are promising to give even more money away, WHICH WE DO NOT HAVE.

Now, beyond the monetary costs. Where are most of these Illegal Invaders coming from"? South of the border. Does anybody remember the 1980's? Does anybody remember El Salvador, Nicaragua, and other nations that were having communist revolutions and their churches were all teaching Liberation Theologies, which is Marxism masked by the church. Does everybody in this idiot government believe that all these good little unskilled or skilled workers are docile? If they do, they better go to the nearest shrink and be examined for sanity. Has anybody heard of the MS-13 gangs coming here and taking over the inner city streets with their violence, drug dealings, murders, etc.? These south of the border thugs even make our homegrown thugs, who are products of the welfare state, scared to go on the streets that they used to reign supreme with their own brand of illegal activities, and terror. We need to end all newcomers having an open door to enter this country with no barriers. Then, we need to begin rounding them up if they are here illegally and send them back with whatever means necessary. Then, we need to end the visas from so-called guests, and all the rest. After they are all out of the country, then we can set about building borders again. A nation is defined by common borders, language, culture, traditions, values and loyalty to these things. None of this is being practiced by these invaders, and in fact, we are becoming a third world country ourselves.
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