Quote Originally Posted by steelish View Post
Wrong. That's the current viewpoint of people who do not understand how America is really supposed to work. The government works FOR the people, and if they pass a new tax code or say $$ will be spent on a specific thing, then they are beholden to the people who elected them to spend the money in the manner they said it would be spent. It is "OUR" money because it is "OUR" government. Unfortunately, education has been twisted to the point where the true American Government process has been taught incorrectly for so long now, that even adults have a skewed view of it.

The American Government now keeps 70¢ of every $1 collected for themselves, to spend on their own expenses. Only 30¢ of each $1 collected gets distributed to the various programs.
The government works for the people. That means everyone, not just you. It's a republic not a democracy, so they are allowed to vote for unpopular things once elected.

Also you keep $0.70 cents of every $1 collected is rather misleading. Do you count military expenses as keeping for itself? What about medicare? What about medicaid? What about social security?

The government actually spends far more than it takes in, and the overhead of the government itself is small compared to programs.