Typical Reston...wanting more government with more parasites to live off the labor of those who actually work for a living. None of us owes others anything, but you are free to support as many welfare cases as you like. You are wrong to assume those of us with brains don't care about other people. I just don't believe everyone with their hand out needs or deserves a dollar.

Our government is not frugal, creating laws to protect us from ourselves and every other potential problem, both real and imagined. I'd love to be free to regulate my own pursuits without government telling me how to do it and why I can't.

Reston, you're an idiot. You want the government to take money from your pocket, and find more ways to take even more money from your pocket.

The minimum wage seems fair...until you realize prices rise to compensate (harming the poor and affecting us all), small businesses close, and other problems don't increase the standard of living for the poor which is the intent of a minimum wage. People making $5.15/hr get an instant 14% raise to $5.85/hr, then to $6.55/hr a year later (12%) and finally to $7.25/hr another year later (another 11%), all at our expense. And people making more than $7.25/hr? They get screwed out of $2.10/hr. And the value of the minimum wage is decreasing. (www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0774473.html)

Government uses taxes to wage wars and give aid to foreign countries. They certainly don't need it to run the country. Dick, is it morally acceptable to defend your life and that of your family and friends?

Without taxes...you would have to protect yourself (I carry a handgun), and pay to use infrastructure as they are used (i.e. dig a well for water or pay to hook into a city system). There are plenty of homes on unpaved roads, though they pay taxes for roads. I paid for my college education myself...no loans. Government does not owe you an education, and when they pay for it you get less education. The socialists among you seem to think the government should give you everything, so why don't you send the extra money you spend on food or clothes and send it to the IRS to help the welfare buy a new car?

Reston, you are so eager to get rid of W, but what makes their replacements any better? You have a double standard.

...bloodsuckers most!

If 10% is enough for God, it's enough for government.

One dollar or millions, why should anyone pay taxes on money that has alread been taxed? Completely unjust, wingnut and Reston.

Typical liberals, Reston and Sarasota agree with what is said, yet rate it poorly.

Politicians don't care how much or to whom they are giving OUR money because it is not THEIR money. Same with social security, if you want to fix it, get Congress to have what we have instead of the lavish retirement plans they have voted themselves...using our money.

...income tax is "voluntary" but is mandatory. The government has a backwards definition of voluntary.

Education and health care have deteriorated ever since the government began regulating it. You can tell the socialists, they think the average citizen should support welfare and pay ever more taxes. Libertarians and those who love freedom believe people should support themselves, and everyone should pay less taxes. If 10% is enough for God, it's enough for the government.

You two are socialists. I meet my responsibilities. I should not be forced to support what others are responsible for. Private companies do a much better job than government providing the needs of the poor. Life-long welfare recipients are leeches on our country, providing nothing and owed nothing. What part of "common good" is invading Iraq? Oh yeah...it keeps our gas prices low by stealing their oil.

If 10% is enough for God ... it should be enough for the IRS. Government would run without income taxes of the People. I'm tired of half my money going toward taxes. I earned it, I should be able to keep it, but government keeps inventing reasons to take more. Reston, do you think it is okay for the state to kill (FBI, BATFE, CIA, etc.)? I don't. They should never show up at your home WITHOUT a warrant.

Reston, I demand no taxes AND a clean election. "Bipartisanship" offers the false alternative of democrat or republican, but there are more parties than just these two. Neither "W" nor Kerry were my choice, so I voted Libertarian (www.lp.org) to tell government I don't approve of what they do and I want a change.

Taxes are turning our country into a socialist state. We are no longer free to choose what to do with the fruits of our own labor. Government uses our taxes to get what they want, seldom using it to get what I want.

Reston, where do you think "W" gets his money? Taxpayers! I would not choose to pay for grants that help pay your way to an Ivy League education. I could have used that money myself since I paid my own way thru a state university by working. The government doesn't owe you an education, food stamps nor welfare. Sarasota, I alone should be able to choose who to support with my money, but the government takes, wastes and give my taxes to people and causes I do not care to help. I don't care to give freedom to Iraq, if they want it, let them fight for it. I don't care to give those on welfare money to buy a new SUV, while I can only afford a 10 year old car. A welfare state is a socialist concept and we live in a Republic where each individual was once free to choose how to spend his own money. Now half the fruits of my labor are stolen from me to support whatever the government chooses. I have no say.

JC and Mike, can you possibly believe so many regulations and being guilty of something is good? Even Reston sees we have too many regulations, though he must think some of our freedoms must be regulated. I think very few regulations are necessary (i.e. it's wrong to murder someone, driving drunk endangers others). But adding the murder of a pregnant woman or of a homosexual is not needed because murder is already wrong.

What law makes you liable to pay income tax? If a cop pulls you over for speeding, he can tell you the law is X.Y.Z.a of the state of xxx. But the IRS will never tell you the law that says you must pay. They may try to point somewhere in the tax code which is so confusing that even the IRS doesn't know what it says.

So you people find it acceptable to take every drop of your blood when you have no more money? Then you are fools. Look at what you are taxed and you will see more than 50% goes to the government (federal income tax, state tax, property tax, sales tax, etc.). Do you like getting only half of what you earn? I sure don't.

The United States was built on capitalism. There is nothing wrong with capitalism. There is no law requiring the rich to give away any of their wealth to the poor. Crushing those who produce makes the country poor. The rich pay a larger percent of their income than the poor do. The government thru the IRS is Robin Hood, robbing the rich to give to the poor. Theft is still criminal and wrong, as is socialism and communism.

The U.S. won't be part of One World Government as long as I still have my firearms. When the BATFE storms our homes to steal our guns ... we will have no way left to resist, and our Republic will be dead.

A rather liberal twist on the golden rule. Government has the gold (from us) and they make more and more rules that are destroying our country. Anyone who thinks the United States is a free country has never heard of the CIA, FBI, BATFE, NAFTA, CAFTA, the Patriot Act, or even terrorism.