Putting the "axe" back in "taxes"

So, if the "Bush era tax cuts" expire at the end of this year, does that mean we are returning to the "Clinton era tax increase"? Or was his increase, actually a repeal of the "Reagan era tax cuts"? Or was that a cutting of the <insert president name> era tax increase before him?

It's all semantics. What really matters, is that our House, Senate, President, and even our State Legislators, need to take the tax code, income brackets, and tax rates, and make them ours.

I don't care which president raised or lowered taxes in the past. Taxes are a fact of life in civilized society but so are the things that justify them. What I care about today, is not only what are my taxes going to be, but  more importantly, what value am I getting for those tax dollars? Do I get a more secure nation? Are the roads I drive on better? Do my kids have a decent education available to them? Will all the dollars I've paid (and am going to pay) into Social Security be wasted, because the program may not be there for me later?

Thinking of it like that, I am pretty sure that we deserve an even bigger tax cut. Our nation spends comparable amounts on Social Security, welfare and social programs, national defense, and the treasury department (including interest on national debt). But we aren't getting any safer, just losing more rights and freedoms as civilians. Social Security has been on the rocks since early in Clinton's presidency, when they first started recommending higher contributions, later retirement ages, and lower benefits... and 2009/2010 were the first two years in the histor of Social Security where more was paid out than paid in. Our nation 's schools are quite frankly, pathetic. We spend more and more money on education every year, and get a worse and worse product.

I'm just tired of having everything go downhill, and then have the government somehow try to guilt me into feeling like I should pay more, or that somehow, a rich person (who has the same amount of votes I do on election day, the same constitutional rights, and the same roads to drive on that I do) should somehow pay a higher percentage of their income to the government. Why should I pay 20% and them have to pay 35%?

And the Republicans and Democrats are both two sides of the same coin. Earlier in the week, Democrats were accusing the Republicans of being being willing to have the middle class pay higher taxes, because the Democrats wanted to tax the rich more. Then yesterday, Democrats were refusing to support the tax cut extension agreed upon by Obama and the Republicans, because it let the rich still get tax cuts so in effect, the Democrats, three days later, were guilty of the exact same thing they accused the Republicans of.

Both parties need to take a long walk off a short pier...

Cut taxes, cut defense spending, nuke the everliving hell out of welfare programs, and lets get the nation back on solid footing.