My Share of the Federal Budget

Friday is tax day, April 15. Today is Wednesday, April 13. That gives me 48 hours in which to raise a small fortune and give it all to the Internal Revenue Service. Failure to make payment can result in interest, penalties, tax liens, jail, etc., etc., etc.

Like most Americans, I faithfully withheld income taxes all year long, with the hope that this day would not be so devastating. I suspected that some additional taxes might be due, but I presumed that it would be a manageable sum. Today my accountant advised me otherwise. My return is complete and the damage has been calculated to the penny. All that is left is my signature on the return, and the signing of one, large check.

Oh, and one more thing. I have to find the money to put into my account to cover the one, large check.

I wonder, is there a market for body parts? What is the going rate for a kidney? And can a kidney be removed and sold, in a cash deal, within 48 hours? It won’t do any good if it takes any longer. Do I have any other body parts which I can do without?

I’ve never tried day-trading in the stock market. I have heard that you can earn, or lose, a lot of money in a relatively short period of time doing this. To keep to a schedule, I would need to learn the intricacies of day-trading within 24 hours, and then successfully trade for a single day. I don’t think this will work. You have to settle accounts in the stock market and I don’t you get the money on the same day as the trade. Settlement after Friday would be too late.

There used to be something called “float” – the length of time between your writing of a check and the withdrawal of funds from your account. In the good old days, this could be several days. If you could get away with an out-of-town check, this could even take weeks. The world today is too high-tech for this. Paper no longer flows through the system. Instead, checks are scanned and electronic signals flow through the air. The float is reduced to a minutes.

To be safe, I better have the funds in the account by Friday.

How long does it take to learn card counting in blackjack? I’ve heard people making millions from the casinos by counting cards. It is, I understand, the only way to gain an edge against the casinos. I’m pretty good at math. Maybe I could learn. And learn quickly!

I wouldn’t have to waste time in travel. People used to have to go to Nevada to gamble legally. Now there are casinos everywhere. And they are open 24 hours (I think). OK, that gives me Thursday to learn how to count cards, and Friday to win big money in blackjack. It’s possible. But not likely.

I will continue to think through my options. In the meantime, I will complain about my taxes and the size of my tax bill.

My Share of the Federal Budget
I am one of those who do not mind paying a “fair share”, whatever that is. I believe that we won’t be safe and secure, or have decent schools, unless we are willing to pay the cost.

The problem, of course, is figuring out what is a fair share. I make a pretty good living, so my share may be bigger than most. But weren’t we all supposed to benefit from the Bush tax cuts? I simply don’t see it. Maybe I’m just not in that top 1% that John Kerry kept talking about. That’s the top 1% that got all of the tax breaks. I don’t see any special treatment on my tax return.

That must be the formula: if you make more money, you pay more in taxes. That is, until you make more than 99% of your countrymen. Then, if you make more, you pay less.

I don’t think I will be able to move up into the top 1% within the next 48 hours. I may have to go back to the body parts idea.

The Federal Budget
Those people in the political arena who lead the “anti-tax” fight generally focus on “welfare” or other social spending as the cause of high taxes. But the federal budget for the current fiscal year is allocated 25% to Medicare and Medicaid, 15% to Social Security, 15% to the Department of Defense, 12% to interest on the public debt, and 29% to “everything else”. Any real savings in taxes must come from adjustments in spending, or funding, of Medicare/Medicaid/Social Security, and the military, ad reduction of the national debt.

Two other non-partisan organization websites – the Concord Coalition and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget – have interesting articles on current and projected budgets. Scary stuff!

[2019 note: The 2005 Wolverine Café posting had a link to a federal budget source with the allocation of funds, and to specific budget articles from Concord Coalition and CRFB. Rather than try to find the 2005 links, I merely added links to the Concord and CRFB home pages.]