Too many enjoying a free lunch

Recently Vice President Joe Biden put his foot in his mouth, again. This time however, I agreed with him. He stated that “paying taxes was patriotic.” Now at the time he was referring to increasing taxes on the upper income brackets, but in this case Jolting Joe was right, even though he didn’t know it.

Today, over 50 percent of the working people in America pay zero federal income taxes. Now some may argue that they pay into Social Security and Medicare. The difference is these technically are insurance policies for them later in life, albeit very poorly managed. And, yes, they may pay state and local taxes, but again they “have no skin in the game” at the federal level. This is the part that ensures we have our national security, national parks, education and all the bureaucrats and politicians in Washington, D.C.

When I was working at my first full-time job, everyone paid something in federal taxes. It may have only been 5-10 percent, even though I wasn’t making much more than minimum wage. How can people care about the state of their country when they have nothing invested in it? It is no coincidence that less than 50 percent of Americans vote in elections. Why should they? They have a perfect world. The best country on earth and it’s free. Except, freedom isn’t free.

Richard Francke

Bartlett