Spending, not corruption or taxation, is problem

Contrary to several letters suggesting otherwise, Americans who oppose higher taxes and runaway government spending are right on target.

Conservatives are not anti-government nor do they consider taxes theft. On the other hand they do understand that government collects taxes for two reasons: to provide goods and services like highways that tend to make private economic activity more productive and to redistribute income in the form of transfer payments that tend reduce incentives to work, save and invest and therefore depress economic productivity.

Most conservatives agree that the latter is and has been totally out of control regardless of who has been in control.

Prior to the current recession, the federal government's share (taxes) of GDP was about 18 percent and spending was about 20 percent of GDP. President Obama’s budget projections through 2013 are 19 percent and 22 percent respectively. State and local taxes, as a percentage of GDP, have been increasing faster than the federal government’s share.

As a result, total local, state and federal taxation is approaching 1/3 of the total U.S. economy. According to the most recent estimates, over the next 20 years Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare taxes will require another 6-7 percent of GDP to remain solvent.

Finally, I am sick and tired of the “make the wealthy pay their fair share” rhetoric. While it is true that a large percentage of the nations wealth is concentrated is a small percentage of the population, the top 5 percent of income earners currently pay 59 percent of all income taxes and that the bottom 50 percent of income earners are paying less than 4 percent of all income taxes. It seems to me that if the top 5 percent is bearing nearly 60 percent of the burden, they are paying their fair share.

So I ask, how much is enough? I guess if the other guy is paying, it’s never enough.

Steve Depolo

Small Business Owner, Bellevue