A Taxing Situation!

Washington has a plan! They've vilified the banking and health insurance industry, and with that feel the need to regulate them. After all it's for our own good, they are making "obscene" profits from us. Most of us would agree we don't like big conglomerates taking advantage of us, so to convince us the government needs to step in is a pretty simple task. This is where they "get us" every time.

Government regulation demands taxing, because someone has to pay for this oversight. Once again it easy to agree to tax corporations, because we've been told they are evil and take advantage of us. How about we take a real life look at who's actually benefiting from all this oversight, and who the villain really is.

The perfect example of government intervention and oversight,(so the consumer doesn't get taken advantage of), is utilities. Now I don't know if you've ever really looked at a utility bill, but I happen to have one handy for an example.

I own a property I've not visited in at least the last 30 days. The city utility company supplies that house with water, for which I gladly remit a check for services rendered. Since I was absent during the last billing cycle one would think my bill would be minimal, Pfffft. Here's how it broke down.....

Somehow I used .08 gallons of water, I'm thinking evaporation, but then the meter doesn't register hundredths so we'll just say the figure is made up, because it has to be. Normally my water bill averages about 32 dollars a month, when I'm there full time. This billing cycle, for.08 gallons of water my bill was $25.53, so I was curious as to where all this money goes. Would it surprise you to know it's for government regulation? $8.02 is for water readiness to serve, a tax for being ready to give me water. Now I could probably do a whole blog on this farce alone but wait, there's more! Sewer readiness to serve, $13.56. Now any reasonable person can see that if your going to be ready to supply water you have to by definition be prepared to remove said water. Ergo a tax for again being prepared. Also included was a tax for $.81 for a "Utility tax", I'm guessing the money needed to oversee that these taxes are collected and distributed. And last but not least a storm water tax for $2.88, just in case it rains, they taxed it. Now the bill was actually eight cents for the water and eighteen cents for sewer. So in reality to keep the evil utilities in line it costs $25.36 in taxes on a twenty six cent bill.

Now for what amounted to a mouthful of water I paid $25.53, the finest sparkling wine from an exotic country couldn't rival that. This is the regulation they are trying to institute in your health insurance bill and your banking. Effectively turning them into utilities and "regulating" them. So with this example in mind, who's the villain here?

We need to get government out of our lives, it's too darn expensive! The cost of bureaucracy is what is ruining our economy. The only thing that comes to my mind right now after reviewing this invoice is, government doesn't fix problems, government is the problem. I can recall a previous blog where I pointed out the Federal Government made more in tax revenue than the evil oil companies, yet they are the villains! Look at your electric bill too, the only thing not taxed, is the taxes. Nope wait, they taxed them too.If you can stomach another example review the phone bill, these are not isolated incidents, but rather examples of a pattern.

This is what we are in store for if the government regulates banks and health insurance. Anytime our representative suggest a tax on any entity, take it to the bank, it'll be passed on to us. Time to speak out my people, otherwise we are going to be taxed into socialism.

God Bless
Capt. Bill