Stupidity: A Prerequisite for Contemporary Politicians?

I don't know about you but if my spending went up 19% we'd be in bankruptcy court. I hope I am not making wild assumptions about everyone else. To me, if you can't rein in spending in a bad economy, then you're not being a wise steward, and in the case of a politician, you don't deserve your position. Any city raising spending by 19% and then taxing people out of their houses to pay for it is truly out to lunch. Someone needs to rethink the ole budget. Is stupidity the new prerequisite for holding public office? What happened to common sense, people?

I know that I am unusual, in that I passed a placement test for Calculus as a senior in high school, but even my 8 year old, who is no math whiz, is pretty clear on the concept that when property values are going down, taxable values on a property for purposes of property taxes have no reason to go up. And, in an age when most people haven't gotten raises or have gotten paycuts (or worse, are unemployed) there is no reason for spending in any town to go up 19%!

In an interesting article I was just reading, the person in charge of Greenburgh, NY, feeling sorry for seniors on fixed incomes who can't pay property taxes that look more like what their old mortgage payments were, came up with a neat plan. Any senior who can't pay their taxes gets put to work for menial labor in his town. Wow, great idea. He apparently envisions retired professionals mentoring and tutoring young people for $7 an hour. Yeah, right.

So much for retirement, eh? Sort of like the indentured servitude thing that we had going on in colonial times. If they needed a job to pay for their taxes, they could probably find one paying more than minimum wage. The problem is, working while retired makes all of your other benefits vaporize, thus putting you in a far worse situation financially. Oh the catch-22's of bureaucracy!

I think this hits seniors and those who worked hard to pay off their houses much harder than others, because they can't afford these constant increases on a home they already own. As my mom recently put it, her tax burden is higher than her house payment was, plus heat, electric and phone. However, it is also hurting the younger generation, particularly those of us who have most of our paychecks sucked out of our pockets and into the pockets of big government already. With all of the homes in foreclosure around me, and the fact that I can't unload my house for what I even own on it (after putting a generous 20% down on the house when we bought it 9 years ago!!!), I would love to know how our taxes went up too.

Then again, the answer is the fact that politicians are very good at spending your money and mine without employing some common sense, self-control, and wisdom. The American taxpayer's income and property values are the politician's personal line of credit. They spend, and spend, and spend, not thinking for one moment about trying to save money or reduce spending. Occasionally they get the poor to vote for them by generously giving them increased benefits (at the middle class worker's expense--it's easy to be generous when it ain't your money, isn't it, Senator?), and occasionally they may promises to reduce taxes but then worry us by telling us the budget isn't balanced, and thus they must raise taxes to pay for this shortfall. My taxes pay for all sorts of things I don't believe in (welfare for anyone and everyone, research grants for nonsensical and irrelevant things, various pork projects of different politicians, and of course wasting "rebuilding" countries populated by members of the terrorist religion we have "liberated", and allowing them to write a constitution that doesn't allow religious freedom, among other things...and that's just off the top of my head).

I've faced this issue in our family too. I sit and balance the checkbook and pay the bills each month, and sometimes I notice that we have a shortfall--more month than money. Both government and I have two choices. I can go rob my neighbor for more money to pay for my shortfall, or I can look over my budget items and work hard to reduce spending. I suppose there is a third choice--get a better job or get a second job, but that is not always possible. The politicians usually choose door number one: robbing their neighbors. They'd do well to consider door number 2--go over the budget, get rid of the pork, and thus balance the budget. It works in my family, at least until our property taxes get so high that they consume all of our income.