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I like both of your arguments about the extremes that others are willing to undertake to become a part of America. The beacon or is it beckoning of freedom is still a magnet. I don't dispute the attraction of freedom What I am challenging is how much freedom will they find when they arrive on our shores. I grant that it may still be substantially more than what they had anywhere else, but how does it compare to the standard we once set? Are our standards of freedom lower? Are we less free than we were?

Income tax day is almost upon us. According to things I have seen in print, taxes are the singlest largest item in any family's budget, not savings for retirement, not food, not shelter, nor anything else. Is is freedom to see your wealth and future retirement confiscated by politicians seeking re-election who intend to give it to their constituents?

Have you ever looked in library at our tax code? Not only is beyond the scope of any average American, it is beyond the scope of its authors and enforcers. And if you have taken the time to read it, it is absolutely meaningless. I could write a more meaningful code on the back of an envelope, and there is no one who would think it unfair or confusing.

Look at the rest of the US code, state codes, municipal codes and the train loads of regulations that are issued by governments. Do you believe these laws and regulations extend your rights and freedoms while empowering you to make decisions or are they more likely to limit your ability to make choices and/or decisions while empowering a government bureaucrat to make that decision for you. Do these rules and laws make you more or less free?

If you are still reading, now ask your self if most of these rules actually make any sense or are they often confusing and contradictory? Presumably some of these rules affect your livelihood and some area of life in which you have expertise. I have met my fair share of government bureaucrats. There are exceptions, but over whelmingly they represent the dregs of any career area. They are generally the least skilled and most incompetent to make decisions especially in areas where private citizens have demonstrated their ability to excel. Planning by private committee is generally not efficient. Government planning is an oxymoron. Socialism fails every time it is tried. How long are we going to have to wait in this country before we admit that it has failed again. The unfunded liabilities of SS and Medicare are going to start coming due in spades in about ten years. By then it will be too late to save anything. Rome is on fire, how long will you ask us to let it burn?

Have you ever looked in library at our tax code? Not only is beyond the scope of any average American, it is beyond the scope of its authors and enforcers... Look at the rest of the US code, state codes, municipal codes and the train loads of regulations that are issued by governments... If you are still reading, now ask your self if most of these rules actually make any sense or are they often confusing and contradictory?

Hamilton or Madison wrote in Federalist 62 (Concerning the Constitution of the Senate):

It may be affirmed, on the best grounds, that no small share of the present embarrassments of America is to be charged on the blunders of our governments; and that these have proceeded from the heads rather than the hearts of most of the authors of them. What indeed are all the repealing, explaining, and amending laws, which fill and disgrace our voluminous codes, but so many monuments of deficient wisdom; so many impeachments exhibited by each succeeding against each preceding session;

-PJ

You make good points about taxation and the regulatory state. The tax code and medicare regulations are now so complex the administering agencies can't interpret them with consistency, even though they confidently prosecute alleged violators!

Bottom line is I agree we are over-taxed and over-regulated. The only solution is for conservatives to continure to fight for what is right, and what made us prosperous. We've come a long way from the '60's, when liberals dominated all three branches of government.

But there is still nowhere else in the world I would rather live and raise my family. God Bless America, problems and all.

B.A. ... I read your well conceived and intentioned comments ... and everything you say and concern is TRUE! BUT ... you are saying and concerning these things OPENLY, without fear, with your children clothed, housed, fed, secure and well educated. Get it? Only in America are these things a given.

People here on FR who feel overwhelmingly aggrieved are despicable little rodents. They don't know what they have, I'm not gonna listen to what they've lost. They are fattened losers.