When will taxpayers stop being victimized by the biggest federal scam of all? It works like this: the Federal Government threatens us with arrest and imprisonment if we don’t give it money. Then it wastes, misspends, or outright loses the money it takes in while it blames us for not giving enough to buy opportunity for kids, minorities, and other sacred cows. State governments do the same thing and they also blame Washington for not being generous enough to make up for what it dumps on their budgets. So here is the question no one ever answers: how much tax money do we have to waste for Democrats to be able to keep whining that they don’t have enough?
Kids deserve a fair shot, but they’re not going to get it from Obama
Our money hungry president spends way too much time looking down from his perch in Washington, casting aspersions at taxpayers for not handing over enough while tens of billions slip through the government’s fingers. A week ago Obama blamed the problem on not spending on the right things:
For decades, we threw money at education without making sure our schools were actually improving, or whether we were giving teachers the tools they need, or whether our taxpayer dollars were being used effectively. And our kids too often paid the price. 1
He also blamed his favorite tax thief, wealth:
At a time when we have to give every child, everywhere, a fair shot – this Congress would actually allow states to make even deeper cuts into school districts that need the most support, send even more money to some of the wealthiest school districts in America, and turn back the clock to a time when too many students were left behind in failing schools. 2
The real truth doesn’t matter because the federal scam over our tax dollars never changes.
Federal scam spends more so kids and schools can come up short?
A recent Department of Education blog post backs the federal scam over taxes as it applies to school funding, tossing in the word “minority” for some racial impact:
Twenty states also have school districts that spend fewer state and local dollars on districts with a high percentage of minority students, than they do on districts with fewer minority students. 3
That sounds damning and discriminatory until you think about how schools are funded at the local level with property taxes, or consider that the Obama administration only asked for an additional $2.7 billion in Elementary and Secondary Education Act funding for 2016,4 an infinitesimal amount compared to the tax revenue the government wastes, loses, or should never have spent to begin with.
Consider this:
1. Obama’s progress on improper payments with his 2010 Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act is a joke. A December 2014 GAO Inspector General’s letter showed a decline of only $1.3 billion from 2012 to 2013 with over $105.8 billion in improper payments still being made.5 The Federal Government knows it doesn’t matter how much it loses. If our taxes are raised and we don’t want to pay them, we go to jail. Jail is a powerful incentive.
2. The nation’s public pension debt could exceed $4 trillion, causing lots of congressional hand-wringing and gestures like H. Res. 41, which objects to federal bailouts of underwater state and local public pensions.6 In no event should the Federal Government pay for pension debt, but the burden remains on the backs of taxpayers whose schools, according to the Department of Education, engage in discriminatory spending and deny opportunity to kids because of lack of funding. Teacher’s pensions are chiseled into state statutes. Opportunity for kids is not.
3. Democrats spend lots of money on health care that could have gone to education. Federal Affordable Care Act spending is on the rise. Subsidies rose by $14 billion in 2014.7 Thanks to Obamacare, Medicaid, and CHIP, costs will increase $47 billion in 2015 to $117 billion if we make it to 2025, with a whopping $920 billion to be spent over this ten year period.8
4. The IRS Tax Gap is estimated at $385 billion (see: Buffett Rule Will Not Apply to Tax Gap Deadbeats). That’s a number from 2006, but it’s still a recent estimate because this is government and things at the IRS happen slowly. Fortunately, the tax gap did not deter the agency from going after conservatives who usually stand in the way of irresponsible social spending. Had the IRS collected more of the tax gap, we could have wasted the money on something else, like investigating more conservatives.
5. Tax refund fraud caused the IRS to pay out nearly $6 billion in fraudulent refunds.9 Billions have been handed to illegals with the Additional Child Tax Credit. What is the Democratic Party’s answer to tax fraud and identity theft? Give amnesty to the same people whose talent is creating false identities and let states help pay the cost of their care and feeding.
Taxpayers scammed and insulted. How much is enough?
Why aren’t taxpayers who are constantly asked to pay more not rioting in the streets when we hear things like this from the Department of Education?
All of us have a role to play when it comes to ensuring that students from low-income families aren’t shortchanged. At the federal level, we’re ready to work with Congress to close the federal loophole that allows districts to allocate funds inequitably.10
The reason is we have heard it before and too many stopped listening. We only notice when our taxes go up.
While we’re being accused by the government of not paying enough, the White House is holding our national security hostage because the president wants to spend even more on illegal immigrants. His latest proposal to save the lower classes means taxpayers would be responsible for two years of community college. Before college is even on the horizon we’ve been told that preschool is essential and must be universal. Meanwhile the waste continues with tens of billions paid out incorrectly, lost to fraud, spent on liberal causes that cost too much, or sunk into failing programs while federal officials accuse us of being cheap, self-centered, and racist, and demand that we hand over even more. The reason? Because we can’t deny opportunity to kids.
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