Politics-Ethics Question

[Kibby]

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Out of curiosity, do you favor cutting existing federal taxes? I would guess that 1/9th of all dollars - that is, maybe 1/3 of all Federal tax dollars - are "wasted" already, no? A fun current example as far as tax dollars go is the death of Gerald Ford: American taxpayers are going to pay for every (non-military, presumably) Federal worker to take the day off on Tuesday to "mourn" ex-president Gerald Ford's passing. Figure that's about .5% of the work year essentially wasted. (My apologies to any federal employee who is genuinely deeply saddened by the loss of our ex-president Ford. I hope I didn't hurt either of your feelings.)

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The amount of money our government wastes in phenomenal. The day off for federal works is silly but doesn't scratch the surface of the waste. That being said, how much of it exactly is wasted? who knows. In terms of the question of taxes in general, its less important how much taxes there are (though that is important) and more important how those taxes are structured. The structure of taxes (who pays them, how, and in what proportion) is the more important question, imho. For example, in the US we have a regressive tax structure. Proportionally, wealthier americans pay less as a percentage of income in taxes then less well off americans. This structure has predictable effects. The disparity in income in america is large as compared to countries that have progressive tax structures. Anyways, that's my soapbox. . .

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The lower end of the economic ladder would (in our hypothetical) be comprised largely of legless, armless folks, many of whom would not protest their own ongoing maintenance.

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Guess I should have said, "Productive members of the economic ladder."