Wake up America, More New Taxes Are Coming

OK! I finally figured it out. Somehow, during one of the presidents speeches, millions of people were hypnotized into believing our government was going to solve all our problems. Some of us, who don’t watch all of the speeches, escaped and remain skeptical. I knew there had to be a good reason why so few people seem to understand that our government is going to tax us to death a little at a time. Everyday I hear and read news about some kind of tax. Even locally they are approving new taxes, while the price of everything continues to rise and our paychecks remain the same.

This week I heard about a tax on personal calls from employer provided cell phones. Since it was too difficult to actually figure out which calls were official and which were personal, they plan to simply ASSUME that 25% of calls made are personal and tax us accordingly.  I know you will find this hard to believe but I NEVER use my work phone for personal reasons. In fact I carry two phones, one for business and one for personal use.

It was suggested that one way around the tax would be to use your personal cell for business and keep a log. Every month or so you would turn in the log to get reimbursed for the business calls. Well, I don’t know about you but I don’t want some 400 businesses, that I deal with,  having my cell phone number. I only give that number to family and friends.

If you haven’t been paying attention, there have been several other new taxes proposed just this week.  Higher taxes on cigarettes are supposed to deter people from smoking. As a former smoker I can tell you that people will figure out a way to get their smokes even if they can’t afford food. Ditto with adding more taxes to alcoholic beverages.

A proposed $.50 per gallon additional tax on gasoline is meant to make the people who use the roads pay for their upkeep. Well I, for one, drive because that’s a big part of my job and not because I enjoy doing it. As it is I lose money every year because the state does not use the federal mileage standard for reimbursement. In order to claim the difference it has amount to 2% of my adjusted gross income, which it does not. So I and millions of other people, would get penalized for doing what we have to in order to put food on the table. Besides, taxes are already built into the price of gas. In addition, here in South Carolina we pay a “Road User Fee” as part of our property tax. So where does that money go?

Another tax being discussed is a tax on obesity. This means we would pay a higher tax on food deemed unhealthy, such as fast food and soda. Now, I’m sure that this stuff may contribute to the unhealthy condition of a majority of Americans, but not everyone who eats and drinks this stuff is out of shape. In fact, how many times have you seen football and soccer teams at McDonald’s after a good game. At least these kids are getting exercise. Should we now punish them because they are winners?

Here locally, I just saw where they are going to raise our property tax yet again. We didn’t even get to vote on it or discuss it. They simply could not balance the budget so they decided to take the difference out of our pockets. They were even sneaky about how they did it. First they announced a decrease in property taxes which would save me about $20 a year. Then they approved a $34 landfill fee and a $1.50 technology fee, to cover the cost of printing my tax notice. So overall my taxes were raised by $15.50. This is a perfect example of why all of us need to pay attention to what is going on around us.

Times are tough!! Many of our neighbors, friends and families are out of work and some of us don’t know what will happen to our jobs in the next few months. Instead of coming up with ways to cut government spending (local and federal) we are facing the possibility of numerous new taxes because of new spending by our leaders.

So, as I’ve suggested many times before, you have to let your representatives know that you won’t stand for it. It doesn’t take long to call or write an email to your congressman and senator. It doesn’t have to be a long email, just a couple of lines. I’ve contacted both of my state senators and two congressman at least three times this week. Will I make a difference? Not by myself, but if we all take a few minutes to show our kids we care about their future, then someone will listen. So go to www.senate.gov and/or www.house.gov find your representative and let them know that you care about America.

Our Government is There to Govern Not Run Our Lives

OK, I agree that we have to do something about our health care system, but I don’t think that our government should be in charge of running it.  If you listen to the news and follow what is said, about certain representatives that we elected, you will learn that few of them have any experience running a business. In fact the majority have never had a paying job outside of politics. So how can we expect them to run a major industry like national health-care or even the car companies we now own.

A couple of weeks ago I attended a small business opportunity forum. This was an effort to educate small businesses on how to get work with the government and get help doing it. There were speakers from the Small Business Administration (SBA), Small Business Development Center (SBDC), General Services Administration (GSA)  and other agencies both state and federal. On a side note, I too was a guest speaker for my agency and a fine speaker I was too. Anyway, the theme was survival in tough times. One thing that was mentioned several times was preparation. The SBA talked about all the potential entrepreneurs who come to them and say I want to start a business. Surprisingly, when asked what kind of business they had in mind, the answer was “I don’t know, I thought you could tell me”.

Although that’s distressing, the number one problem with people seeking to open a business is the lack of business training. The individuals know that they want to open a restaurant, because they love to cook, or a gym because they love to grunt, but that’s all the expertise they bring. They don’t have any idea about purchasing, management, accounting or any of the other skills needed to be successful.

Our government is like that. They arranged to own a couple of  automobile companies, but have no experience in the industry. Instead they appoint a Task Force to oversee the industry. The head of the task force is the Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner. Has anybody heard anything good about the economy lately? So why did we appoint a man, who has no history of success, to oversee the rebuilding of two companies in bankruptcy?

So now we get back to health care. Our government only needs to look at the history of health-care systems in England and Canada to know that this will not work. We don’t need a national health-care system. What we do need is to get health-care costs under control. Why does a single little white pill cost $312.00? Why does a visit to the doctors office cost $600, when you are only with the doctor for about seven (7) minutes on average? The outlandish costs are what we need to fix. If we lower the cost, insurance rates would come down and more people could afford it. Then the government could focus on the millions of Americans who still need help. This would best be handled on a bid system already used in all government agencies. The government should divide the country into regions and have health insurance companies bid on caring for the disadvantaged who cannot afford the insurance. Then the government could pay for the premiums while providing access to the same type of low cost, low deductible and low co-pays that government employees enjoy.

We did not elect our representatives to run businesses and get involved in our day to day decisions. We did not elect our representatives only to have the President appoint “Czars” who take the decisions and control away from congress and the senate. We are losing control people. So contact your representatives at www.senate.gov and www.house.gov.

Don’t wait until the decisions have already been made, do it now and let them know that we care about our country. God Bless America..