The following was written to his 2 senators and his congressional representative by Richard Mack, a former Sheriff of Graham County, Arizona.
Dear Senators Kyl and McCain and Congresswoman Kirkpatrick:
Yesterday I did my taxes for the year 2008. My wife and I both work and make an average middle class income living paycheck to paycheck. Together, my wife and I paid about $5700 for federal income taxes. We are getting a whopping $870 back. Which means you, the federal government, are keeping $4,800 of our money.
My question to each of you is; WHY? Why should I be sending any of our hard earned money to Washington? You simply take it and give it to AIG, GM, Chrysler, Ford, the Banksters, Wallstreet CEOs, who then use it for their personal bonuses, not to mention the nice little raises the three of you received this year. My son is going to college and works on the side. His wife was working to help put him through school. She had their first child in December, and while she was on maternityl eave she was laid off. Now they need our help and I am out of money. Do you realize or have any clue whatsoever how much we need our money that you are taking from us? That $4800 could be put to great use paying our bills and helping our children. The three of you always claim, in your campaigns, to be champions of the people. Well, are you or aren't you? Regardless, I am asking for my money back. Yes, that's right, I want you to make sure my money is sent back to me. I am not asking for a grant, or for you to take money that belongs to my neighbors and then give it to me, and I am not asking for a multi-billion dollar bailout. All I want is my money returned. And I want it just as fast as the first bailout was passed and delivered to some of the aforementioned companies. If you can do it for them you can do it for me. By the way, I work for a car dealership in Safford, and the bailout money to the banks and the CEOs of the big automakers has not improved a thing.! The next time you want to help America, start with mainstreet not Wallstreet.I look forward to hearing from you.
Not many people realize even how much money they pay in taxes. A talk show host once asked his producer and others on air whether they had paid money or got money back at tax time. Some answered that they had paid, some that they had got money back. The talk show host then made the point that all of them had paid, it's just that some of them got some of what they paid back. In other words, since the money is automatically deducted from our paychecks, we don't realize just how much money the government is taking directly from us. And the letter writer makes another very good point: the money that went to the auto makers and the banks didn't help the guy working at the dealership at all.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
