The Economy

When I give a gift I recognize I have no control and no say in how it is spent.  It is the receivers to do with what they will.  If I give a gift card and they want to throw it away or give it away that is their business.  If  I give a monetary gift and the recipient wants to burn it or save it or spend it all on candy and soda, it was a gift and as I give it I recognize it is gift and once given it is no longer my business what happens to that gift.
Paying taxes is a responsibility.  When I fulfill my responsibility I expect the government as the beneficiary of my tax money to use it wisely, to track it so I can see where it is going and how it is being used in a way that benefits all.  Entitlement programs funded by the US Government include (but are definitely not limited to... as they just keep growing and growing and growing) Social Security for the retired/elderly, education of the young, food stamps- wage subsidies- housing subsidies for the poor,  government worker pensions, and medicare/medicaid (now the affordable care act).  By definition an entitlement is something that workers pay in for and use the benefit provided for their children or themselves as needed.  I have no problem with people paying into the system and then using the benefits, but what the benefits are used for, where they are used, and the lack of oversight on use is what bothers me.  I didn't give this money as a gift to the government.  I expect they are using my money for what it is meant for and not just passing it out carelessly.  I expect that they are checking for fraud.  Did you know that you can go into a bar/restaurant establishment order beer or another alcoholic beverage and pay with your food stamps-- your server just rings up your purchase as a hamburger combo.  Not the government's fault, but who is watching it and what is the consequence if the business is found out.  They should lose their "privilege" of serving as a provider of this benefit and the person with the food stamp benefit should lose it.  People can go in and apply for housing assistance per month to help with rent.  Good system, but with no oversight you can move in with your friends and still collect the assistance and use it to supplement your wardrobe instead of your rent-- that's not what it was intended for.   At one point before I was married I was looking for a new apartment.  D and I drove up to a complex that looked nice with a pool and a good view of the Nashville skyline and the cars in the parking lot were much more expensive than mine; when we walked in to talk to management about it they informed us it was all a Section 8 housing development.  At that point on a small Christian school teacher's salary I was well qualified for Section 8 housing, but walked away.  That job and a government Head Start teaching position I was offered taught me another scam some people run: at Head Start the person who interviewed me offered as a benefit that every summer when class was not in session I could apply for unemployment benefits and not work or even have to try to find some gap employment, just ride the broken system and enjoy summer by the pool. Maybe it is my ethical flaw that if I can scrape by and make it on my own, I do.  I believe in the benefits entitlements provide but question the fraud being committed in these systems at worker-taxpayer expense.  I question the lack of concern in the government about how long people remain in the welfare system and lack of encouraging people to work or even to perform volunteer services to earn the benefits they take out of the system if they are able-bodied.   I question what the government considers to be rights instead of privileges: internet and cell phones are luxury items not an inalienable right.  I have been in positions at different points of my life to recognize and have to make those choices.  When you go for a year or longer living on a strict budget where you call the bank before you go to the grocery store to make sure you have enough to cover food or when your splurge of the week is a trip for fast food, but only the dollar menu and you take it home so you don't have to order drinks, you know what a budget is and how to make it work without incurring debt.  I know what a budget is and why even today I like to save as much as possible and I am very aware how blessed I am and what hard work is and remember value so I don't ever have to call the bank before I go to the grocery store again.
The American government has no sense of budget or what is necessity and what is luxury.  The government (in my view) has no vision of limiting spending or cutting anything.  The president recently compared the debt ceiling to eating a big steak dinner at a restaurant and then walking out on the bill.  Let me expand on his analogy-- the government has no business eating in a restaurant right now, much less buying an expensive steak dinner and as far as walking out without paying the bill that's not what they want to do, they want to hand the bill to my children and grandchildren and have them pay later for the expensive steak dinners they are ringing up now.  I am willing to do my part through taxes, but I want to see their wise spending and see their accountability for the money I provide for their use.  I pay their (inflated and rising) salaries.  I want to get my money's worth.  I think many American taxpayers are angry not fully because taxes are rising, but because they feel they are paying for a lot of unnecessary items, a lot of splurges and luxuries at our expense and it all goes unregulated.  I am fine paying for the person who can't do for themselves, but hold issue with paying for people who won't do for themselves because using the system is just so much easier.  
Before I pay any more in taxes I want to truly see that the people spending my money are accountable.  That the items purchased with money are necessary (protection, caring for the poor and disabled, education, infrastructure). When I see true effort for living within governments means, ending fraudulent use of funds,cutting back, belt tightening then my mind is more open. Right now we are at a tipping point that other countries have faced when there is so much more leaving the coffers than is being taken in. Right now I just think about how much my boys will have to make to live and how much more to straighten out the financial disaster my generation is leaving for them. Right now I don't want to look anymore at government programs and expenditures because the luxury item spending makes me feel furious and powerless at the same time.