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Telephone Tax and Powdered Milk
by Peary Perry | |
Although
I am not old enough to be enrolled in Medicare, it occurs to me after watching
the news and reading the papers that we have just managed to create another governmental
bureaucratic snowball. One that will most likely roll up into something totally
unmanageable and useless for all those it is intended to serve.
I consider
myself halfway sane and reasonably intelligent, but when I try and look at the
multitude of options available on the new drug/prescription plan that just went
into effect, my head starts to hurt and my eyes roll around, making me dizzy.
Needless to say, it appears to me to be very confusing as to what kind or type
of plan anyone should sign up for. In New York, for instance, seniors have over
46 plans to choose from varying in monthly cost from a low of $4.10 to $85.02.
It seems most of the plans offered have different premiums, different deductibles,
co-payments and what drugs are covered. Not an easy decision to be sure. Why is
this so difficult? How come the government didn’t test this idea before they put
it into effect?
Sometimes I wonder if governments ever just get too large
to remain effective? You look at the problems France is experiencing these days
and realize that their problems aren’t going to go away anytime soon. These are
deeply serious issues that someone, somewhere must address in order to get the
situation under control and stop the rioting that has spread throughout the entire
country.
It looks like to me that before any new program or law goes into
effect, it should be tested out by someone to see how it is going to be administered
and if it’s difficult or easy to comply with. As I recall, sometime earlier this
year, someone pointed out that we are still paying a 3% tax on our telephones
as a result of the Spanish American war. I tried running this down this morning
and found this interesting piece of news:
A
hundred and seven years ago, in 1898, the federal government began levying a temporary
3 percent excise tax on telephones, ostensibly to fund the Spanish-American War.
Flash
forward to 2005 -- and every American with a telephone is still paying this "temporary"
tax. The war was over after just a few months, but the tax has been in effect
for over a century. On top of that, the tax does not go for any specific purpose.
Rather, the funds are simply added to the general fund.
Well, isn’t that
special?
So, it appears that once a tax is in place, it stays in place.
The family that prays together, stay together… sort of thing. The same goes for
any type of administration or governmental agency, they are somehow eternal and
never dying. Take another unknown federal agency that I bet you never heard of,
much less would approve of your hard earned tax dollars going toward it’s support.
This little beauty is called the “Strategic Milk Reserve”. Like the strategic
oil reserve, but only this time with milk. What’s the story on this one? Read
on:
Washington, D.C.) -- Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW)
today criticized the federal government's $1 billion stash of milk powder buried
in caves under Kansas City. The powder, a product of 70 year-old farm subsidies,
costs $20 million annually to maintain and is a layover from the bad old days
of command and control agriculture policy. Equivalent to 1.3 billion gallons
of skim milk, the government has bought enough milk powder to supply the country
for 16 months. The government buys the milk to keep it off the market and thereby
maintains artificially high dairy prices.
When is the last time you drank
powdered milk?
I
have time for just one more, then I have to go lay down, since this stuff makes
me sick. You are probably aware that we don’t have a draft in this country. Yet,
we spend over $22,000,000 a year to keep the Selective Service agency up and going.
They have over 195 full time employees and have a current database of over 13,000,000
young men between the ages of 18 and 26 years old. Somehow I thought there were
more of those in that age group in the country, but I could be wrong. They spend
$7,360,000 annually on advertising and public awareness about signing up for selective
service. I can’t recall the last time I saw any ad, anywhere telling young men
they were required by law to sign up for this, have you? When is the last time
you heard some 18 year old tell you they had signed up and registered? I haven’t
heard of any. Where are they advertising? Is it evening America? Maybe it’s in
France and that what the riots are all about, who knows?
Well, enough of
this, I suppose we just have to grin and bear it. No other place to live that
I know of, unless you pick out some tropical island, but those are probably taken
by movie stars and rappers. They don’t pay taxes, get drafted or drink powdered
milk. | | |
