Why I am a libertarian.

Taxes.

Ben Franklin supposedly said

"When the people find they can vote themselves money,

that will herald the end of the republic."

I think that day has come.

In school we always heard that the constitution had checks and balances to keep govt. power in check. I heard about the 3 branches of the Federal govt. I later determined there we a few more that I am sad to report were either ignored or eliminated and this I am convinced is the cause of many of the issues we have today. Two important changes have been made that have gotten us to where we are today. The Tenth Amendment reads "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people"

In order to ensure the states rights Senators were selected by the state government. They were the representative of the State intended to keep the Federal government in check. Because of political issues that prevented some states from electing Senators The seventeenth admendment allowed for direct elections bypassing the state govt.completely. The uninteded consequence is the enforcement of the Tenth Amendment was only in the hands of the Supreme court. A court

which of course is appointed by the Executive branch and the Congress a clear conflict of interest.

Before the Sixteenth Amendment taxes at the Federal level had to be more or less apportioned based on the population. This ensured that states could not ban together and enrich themselves at the expense of the other states as Ben Franklin had suggested.

By taxing people directly the Federal Govt. was able to get around this safegaurd and with the states powerless to stop them the Feds. power has grown at an alarming rate.

One might say (not me) it is for the best because this tax money is used for good. Examples include health Care, Social Security, education, student loans, farm subsidies and the list goes on and on.

Let look at one example: student Loans. This sounds good on the surface but here is what has happened. Allow large subsidized loans and grants for college. Making it easier to get student loans means that many students pay little attention to what a school costs and instead focus on things like the New gyms,new dorms, big computer labs, "free" Ipads, and the quality of the education as well, no matter what the cost is. That cost they figure will just be rolled into the grants and loans. This has caused a virtual arms race of sorts where schools have to continue to add expensive perks to attact students. This is why the cost of Univeristy tuition continues to rise way above the rate of inflation. Causing people to call for more and more student loans which will continue the cycle upward. Students get out of school with incredible debt far above what many of these students can ever afford to pay back. It is getting to the point that soon no one will be able to pay for College without the Govt. Student loans can't be forgiven in bankruptcy and private companies have extraordinary powers to sieze assets to collect on student loans. This will amount to virtual Govt. sponsored indentured servitude before long.

I would like to be able to save to send my kids to college but I have to pay incredible taxes plus in addition to paying taxes for schools I pay again to send my kids to private school because of the sorry state of public schools. It is no wonder we all have to buy cheap Chinese made poor quality goods. Soon when we have a VAT tax and it will insure that no one can afford to buy US made items.