An irksome time to be a single taxpayer

Thought about Rand Paul, Sarah Palin and Rick Santorum while putting the finishing touches on my 2010 tax returns. Why? Because they have 3, 5, and 7 children respectively.

I’ve spent my entire working life in the highest bracket, i.e. single with no dependent children. Thus, in a way, I’ve been enabling The Pauls, The Palins and The Santorums to feed from the public trough for years through tax breaks for dependent children.

You betcha they make sure to take off every penny, which means their legal deductions have been offset by some or the hundreds of thousands of dollars I’ve forked over to Uncle Sam.

These professional tea party types became particularly irksome to me when the final tally came into view of the hard-earned dollars I had to leave in the federal government’s coffers this year.

Since moving to Philadelphia, my federal, state and local taxes are the highest they’ve ever been, proportionate to my income. And while I don’t lament people having as many kids as they want, what I don’t like are crybabies castigating working poor people in the name of getting their own taxes lowered.

Yes, I’d pay more taxes if it meant fewer people would go hungry or that every child could get a decent education no matter what their zip code is. Don’t imagine Rand, Sarah or Rick would join me; not if their constant clamor for mercilessly cutting entitlement programs is any indication.

The next round of rancor in Washington will be over debt reduction and raising the debt ceiling. Then the budget battle will heat up again with House Budget Committee chairman and media heart throb Paul Ryan (3 children) leading the fight to cut spending on the domestic side.

Call me crazy but I still don’t get why inside-the-beltway reporters and pundits are gaga over this guy and his American Enterprise Institute-directed budget proposal. It’s just another blueprint for certain people to hold on to more of their money.

To paraphrase Paddy Chayefsky’s line from Network: “I’m as mad as heck, and I’m not looking forward to helping tea party types anymore.”