Don't spend all 20 cents in one place

It seems to me as if we often overestimate the amount we pay in taxes to support any one government program. Politicians are always going on about cutting programs as if they are robbing individual people blind but we really don’t pay that much per person for most budget items.

For example, Mitt Romney said a few weeks ago that he would cut Planned Parenthood. This would probably make people happy if they do not support that organization but I read somewhere that Planned Parenthood makes up something like 0.01 percent of the federal budget. I don’t know how true that figure is but I’m sure this program does not receive billions and billions of our tax dollars. If my math is close to correct (and it may not be), if you pay $2,000 a year in taxes, 20 cents of that would support Planned Parenthood.

People can have reasonable disagreements over funding an organization like Planned Parenthood (which I am only using as an example; there are dozens of programs like that). But is anyone really going to bitch about being deprived of 20 cents?

Of course, 20 cents from every taxpayer is a ton of cash but why do we act like we’re personally bankrolling these federal programs by ourselves? It reminds me of when people are upset by what government officials do and lord it over the people that their tax money is paying for it. “I’m paying your salary,” people say to the arrogant bureaucrat. No, you’re paying 0.01 percent of that salary so maybe that only entitles you to complain about 0.01 percent of what that bureaucrat is doing. You’re not Warren Buffet bankrolling a corporation.

I’m all for the government recognizing the fact that the people give it power and fund it but there’s a fine line between having a legitimate complaint and just being a moaner. (It’s a fine line with which I am personally acquainted.)

This makes me think of the battles the government used to have in the ‘80s when some people wanted to cut funding to the National Endowment of the Arts. People were outraged and didn’t want any of their hard-earned money being spent on smut like Robert Mapplethorpe or Piss Christ. Because the NEA was a $450 billion program that placed an onerous tax burden on Americans. Fine. We’ll cut funding for the arts. Take back that fucking nickel you contributed. Windfall! Maybe if we cut a few more contentious federal programs, you’ll be able to afford a stick of gum.

I understand that people’s consciences won’t let them pay taxes for things their moral sense doesn’t support but it would be unworkable to have a system where we opt out of paying for things we don’t like. This country is too big and the budget is too big for people to have line-item veto power. If we could opt out of paying for taxes due to our beliefs, government services would cease to exist because it’s human nature to try to get out of paying for things. Hell, I’d make up a religion that didn’t believe in funding the National Transportation Safety Board just so I didn’t have to kick in for that. Not that I’m against airport security — I’d just like other people to pay for it.

The way I see it, Quakers have without complaint paid their taxes to support wars to which they conscientiously object so maybe the rest of us could take a lesson and suck it up.