From the Mouths of Babes

Stolen from a Facebook friend:

I recently asked my friend's little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up. She said she wanted to be President some day.


Both of her parents, being liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I asked her, "If you were the President, what would be the first thing you would do?"

She said, "I'd give food and houses to all the homeless people."

Her parents beamed with pride.

"What a worthy goal," I told her. "But you don't have to wait until you're the President to help the homeless. You can come over to my house and mow my lawn, pull weeds, and sweep my yard. I'll pay you $50.00, and then I'll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50.00 to use toward food and a new house."

She thought that over for a few seconds, and then looked me straight in the eye and said, "Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and do the work? You can just pay him the $50.00."

Her parents still aren't speaking to me.

Reminds me of the first time our daughters looked at the deductions on their paychecks for parttime jobs when they were teenagers and immediately got furious with Uncle Sam, the Governor, and Mssrs. FICA and Medicare. 

I think the guys who would do away with payroll deductions and require individual taxpayers to cut a check to the various government entities each month -- or, better yet, quarterly -- have a good idea.  The reality of how much we "contribute" to government and all its "programs" might become a little more clear.