Sharing the Pie.

This week, a friend of mine reminded me of a quote that Michelle Obama made about 2 years ago. She said, "...the truth is, in order to get things like universal healthcare and a revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more."
It was not a new quote to me at all, but it has been plaguing me all week. What if I don't want to give up my "piece of the pie"? Who is the government to tell me that I HAVE to? Seriously, what right do our own *elected* officials have to tell me that I have to give more of my money to fund programs that I don't believe in? The government is supposed to work for us. I don't get to walk up to my boss and tell them how much they are going to pay me...that's just not the way the world works. Yet, we allow the government to work this way.
Naturally, I have a solution *grins* or two:
The first one goes like this: figure out how much of our tax money actually goes to fund the federal programs outlined by the constitution (3 branches of govt, interstate commerce, protection of borders). Make those our taxes. By *super* rough calculations, this should cut everyone's federal tax bill by about 60%. Since everyone now has an additional 40% of their *previous* tax dollars, they can contribute to the social programs of their choosing...or not, if they so choose. It would be interesting to see where people would give if it were their CHOICE, rather than having it just taken away from them and allocated as the government sees fit. My guess is that most of the welfare programs that reward people for laziness would be gone. What Americans appear to have forgotten is that the government can't give you anything that it hasn't first taken away from someone else. Why is that even legal, much less expected?
The truth is that it would never work because everyone would just spend *their* money on the things that *they* think are important...kind of like it were their own money to begin with.....
??
Yeah.
Anyway, here is my second option.
On every tax form, there is an allocation table. everyone who pays taxes gets to choose *where* their tax money goes....sort of like donating money to a charitable organization.... After the expenses outlined in the constitution are paid, the money is distributed according to each person's allocation table. Then, each program has to live within it's budget. The power and accountability returns to the people instead of the establishment

The money that I earn is *mine.* Seriously, why does the government have the right to take it from me and do things with it that I oppose?