Taxes...Harumph

My husband and I just filed our taxes for 2006. Nothing makes me more nervous and anxious than doing my taxes. A feeling surely not fully born out of rational thought, but it makes me ill, nonetheless.

During the process, I got angry, shoved files and boxes around noisily ( in an attempt to show my frustration, but I think I just annoyed our neighbor downstairs), and, yes, fought with my husband. Definitely not my proudest moment (sorry, honey). But, in the end, finally resigned myself to the terrifying fact that, I did, in fact owe the government. Grrrr.

Did you know that our national debt is now 9.350 TRILLION dollars! That's an increase of 7% from last year. The chart for that much money wouldn't even fit on this poster. Shazam. I know Clinton may have screwed his intern, but at least she didn't charge him 9 Billion dollars for the privilege.

Check out the poster above. It's very information, a little scary, but most of all, intriguing - I've always wondered the age old question "Where's the Beef?" Well, here's the beef, and how it's all allocated.

Things from this poster that I have to question:

1. What is the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and why is it getting 3B (increase of 71%) of our money? It's under Department of State.

2. Renewable Energy got cut 2%. WTF? When is W going to come to his senses?

3.Safe and Drug Free Schools got cut a whopping 62%! Curious. Maybe Laura needed a new injection of botox?

4. Almost all Operations and Maintenance funds for or military is down. Maybe that's a part of the problem why all these soldier are coming home wounded. Their equipment is falling apart.

(For two other voices on the war, check out NPR's piece on Blackwater the corporate mercenary army that's rubbing elbows with almost every major Republican politician, and National Geographic's article on wounded soldiers, showing how good army doctors and nurses are able to care for the hundreds of wounded soldiers they see)

I'm sure there are 100,000 ways to look at this poster. Those are just some of my thoughts. Wouldn't it be cool if we could pick where we wanted our taxes to go? I wonder how that would pan out........