"First I Was Jobless, Now I'm Taxless"

I'm very lucky to be here today to tell you that I might have to file a federal income tax return this year...and I'll probably owe the IRS money too because I didn't have taxes taken out of my unemployment benefits last year (which expired last June).

About 3 weeks ago I didn't think I would ever have to file another tax return again.

I have no money, so for the very first time in my life I'm actually going to have the IRS prepare and file my federal income tax return for me. After being out of work for the past two years I own nothing and I'm flat broke, so what's the worst that can happen? Will the U.S. government lock me up in debtor's prison? Freeze my zero-balance bank account? Put a lien on my forelosed house? Take my repossessed car? Garnish my non-existent wages? If an IRS agent mugged me on the street today he might find some loose change in my pocket (and some lint), that's all.

And judging by my last two years of job searches, the present economy, and future prospects, I may never pay income taxes again.

So I'm putting you and the rest of America on notice...I will NOT be contributing one dime to the U.S. Treasury for fiscal year 2010, and you have corporate America, the banks, and our politicians to blame for that. I'm applying for food stamps and whatever else I can qualify for, and the U.S. taxpayers will be picking up the whole damn tab. Thank you very much.

Individual Federal Income Tax Revenues

2007 - $1,883,540,000
2008 - $1,812,530,000
2009 - $1,369,130,000
2010 - $1,392,990,000
http://www.usgovernmentrevenue.com/

America has lost $500 billion a year in federal income tax revenues paid into the U.S. Treasury since the mass layoffs began during the Great Recession. Now Chinese workers that are working for American corporations are paying those taxes to THEIR treasury. So we now have to borrow more money from China to pay our bills. You don't believe me? Ask APPLE, who's on track to be the first corporation in history to ever break the trillion dollar market cap.

Then recently the wealthiest 2% got the Bush tax cuts extended for another 2 years, costing the U.S. Treasury yet another trillion dollars in revenue over the next 10 years. So then, why has the GOP been bitterly complaining about the deficit? First they let our jobs go to China, then they cut food stamps for the poor and for those who lost jobs to China, then they fought against extending unemployment insurance for those who lost jobs to China (but don't yet qualify for food stamps). Now they're talking about cutting Social Security...denying those who busted their backs for the last 40 years in an American factory so they could "retire" when they became too old and too ill to bust their backs any longer.

So America has less money paid by workers who lost jobs going to China and the rich enjoy more tax cuts who made money in China - and all of this was supported by our politicians for big business, at the expense of average American workers...those who will have to pay off all that debt to China.

Who are our elected representatives in Congress supposed to be representing? Who elects these people to Congress? Why did the Supreme Court allow corporations to make political campaign contributions? What constitution do the judges uphold? If none of us voted, would corporations nominate these people (congresspersons and judges) to rule (not "govern") this country?

If THE PEOPLE voted on referendums on such issues as the prosecution of fraud by the bankers, wouldn't we see a drastic rise in "white collar" crimes, rather than having "appointed" political officials making those decisions on whether or not to prosecute?

Why is there social unrest all over the world today, but none in America? Have we become a nation of wimps? Where is our "tipping point"? The people in Egypt, Iran, Greece, and Britain puts us to shame. Didn't we once lead democracy and set the example for fair play around the world? Have we become a nation of complacent zombies, just dumbly looking at each other and just stupidly waiting for things to get better all by themselves?

Have we all become apathetic, moronic, idiotic imbeciles? Voting for the same old apathetic, moronic, idiotic imbeciles to Congress, from one election cycle to the next? Why are we always stuck with making the same crummy choices between the better of two evils? Once someone tosses their hat into the ring to run for office, they become instantly corrupted by the system from within. - that's why Mister Smith only goes to Washington in Hollywood.

Do we really see ourselves as still being "exceptional" while we see our co-workers, neighbors, friends, and family member's lives being shredded to pieces and torn apart by the inequities in our financial markets, and the outsourcing of our jobs going to foreign countries for the lowest bid?

I should no longer feel bad for those who lost their job today who are surprised and then say they never thought they would. They were most likely the very ones who called me lazy last year and said I was a burden on "their" society. I've been listening to their crap for the last two years since I lost my own job...a job I thought I would never lose. Now the new kid in the unemployment line might have to wipe out his life's savings (and lose his home and car too) before I could welcome him into my world. Then maybe we will become brothers in arms.

Who are Americans anymore if we don't lead, but instead, have been allowing ourselves to be led to slaughter by corporate America while our government "leaders" have greasy money crammed into their expensive suit pockets and/or inside their elitist Louis Vuitton purses? Dictators live in palaces while ours live in mansions...what's the difference if Americans are being forced into poverty just so our "leaders" can keep up appearances to the rest of the world? Why didn't Congress take a cut in their $174,000 annual salaries? Why is it that it's only WE who have to sacrifice, or as our VP recently said, "Just hang in there"? Maybe a few politicians should be "hanging" in there with us.

It's disgusting that our own people have turned against the unemployed in this country as though it was THEY, the jobless, who were the criminals. The corporate-owned media has used propaganda to divide and conquer the American people for the last two years, as though we were all stupid sheep, just accepting our fates as though that's all we're entitled to...rather than life, liberty, and freedom.

The massacre of the middle-class goes on unabated as I write this, with no action being taken by our elected officials to stop the onslaught. That's exactly what is, slaughter. Mass murder of the working-class. I was on the edge three weeks ago, and it's a miracle I'm still here if not for one kind person. But thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, weren't as lucky as I was, and couldn't "hang in there" as long as I did and be lucky enough to find a last-minute savior as I did. How many have died already?

How many Marks and Als are there really? The corporate-owned media keeps this all very quiet, CLAIMING they fear copycat suicides. But I think it's just like the unemployment numbers, the government and corporate America doesn't want the public to know - they don't want to rock the boat. After all, it's not THEY who have suffered at all. It's just us, the "little people", who have had to endure.

And those of us who DO manage to survive will be the real heroes, but the greasy politicians will always take the credit and make the self-serving remarks, "We Americans are a resilient people." (What's this "we" crap?) We (the "little people") do all the work, make all the sacrifices, and do all the suffering, while THEY (the "ruling class") just go about their daily lives sitting in their mansions patting us on top of the head like lap dogs and telling us what good little Americans we are.

But I'm one of the LUCKY ones. Not just because I'm still alive, but because even though I'm jobless, I'm also taxless.