letters: TOO MUCH OF OUR MONEY FOR TAXES

To the editor:

I write in regards to the letter from Gilbert Degenhardt on Aug. 1. He is rather mistaken about who gets the money we earn. Yes, as citizens we must pay taxes. But we are being overtaxed.

Yes, it's true. I go to work, each week I get my paycheck, and it's my money. First, as to the "obligations," these are entered into by our own choosing, and we receive some monetary benefit back from that commitment. For example, we don't pay thye phone bill because we feel philantrhopic. We pay it to receive phone service.

And as to many of those programs from which I supposedly benefit? Most of those are for people who don't pay taxes, and I won't see a penny of it. He cites the welfare recipient driving a new car, but misses the inherent problem entirely. Most working families can't afford a new car. The government't didn't pay for that car. My father and mother and other hard-working parents did. The government is only the biggest consumer because they use our tax dollars to do it.

If it's not my money, then will the person to whom it belongs please come and earn it for himself? My paycheck doesn't fall out of the sky. i work to earn it.

Mr. Degenhardt's claims are simply another example of a socialist liberal. The idea that all Americans are in a "subsidy recipient posture" is socialistic -- that we are all dependant on the government. Why are we in this position? Could it be that the current government system seems to be making it easier to accept a handout than work and pay heavy taxes?

It weems as if Mr. Degenhardt would like us to give all of our money to the government and let them take care of us. That's not how our free society works. We don't simply have to accept programs that we don't like. We can contact our elected officials and tell them how we think they should be spending our tax dollars.

We work to earn our money here, and that's why it should be: ours to use as we choose. That's why people immigrate to America to become citizens -- for the freedom to9 be able to say, "I earned it. It's my money."

ANDREW LUEHRS

Jackson