Reading the MSN Money article, How to tell if you'll get the child tax credit, I was struck by how many Americans apparently believe that the U.S. tax system owes them something, beyond anything they may have contributed to the system. It's one thing to believe, rightly or wrongly, that you're over-taxed; it's something else entirely to believe that you are entitled to have the government give you money over and above whatever you may have paid in taxes.

This situation finds its roots in the social engineering facets of our tax laws. Not satisfied with raising money to fund government activities, Congress, as well as our various state legislatures, have extended tax policy to benefit those they favor and penalize those they don't like. This has been a huge mistake, and the ripples of consequence emanating from their misguided actions have had many negative effects that no one could foresee.

One of the results is the fairly common belief that tax relief should apply at least as much to those who pay little or no taxes as it does to those who pay tremendous amounts of tax. This attitude just makes no sense to me. How can you provide tax relief to someone who effectively pays no tax? Further, when someone only pays, for example, $1000 per year in income tax, how can you expect to balance that against the tens or hundreds of thousands in taxes paid by more affluent people?

Another example of this "give me tax relief just because someone else is getting it" attitude is cited in the MSN Money article. One of Ms. Weston's readers thinks it's unfair that parents of kids aged 17 or older won't get any benefit from the new Child Tax Credit. This just shows that this reader is unaware that the current tax code provides for the Child Tax Credit for children under the age of 17. While I'm not sure why the Tax Code was changed in the past to only benefit children 16 and younger, but this expansion of the Credit is obviously built on that foundation. Focus on the underlying tax law. Well, I suppose that means you have to understand what it is before you can focus on it, and that's another problem. Too many people don't bother to understand even the high points of the Tax Code, much less any details.

And this just points out another problem with our arcane Tax Code: it's so complicated, even people who deal with it every day can't understand it all. And it's gotten so complicated because Congress and state legislatures have wielded tax law as a weapon for their own pet interests, instead of limiting it to its core purpose: generating revenue for the government.

Our tax laws are out of control. We need politicians who are focused on the honor and sacrifice that public service is based upon. Politicians whose personal integrity and character make them willing to do what's right, even if it hurts them personally. They could take a page from the book of many true public servants: police, firefighters, military servicemembers and others who make sacrifices every day because of their underlying motivation to make the world a better place. Those who give up much to protect others. Those who, all too often, give their lives in the service of their community and their country. Similar examples of sacrifice in elective office in this country are so scarce as to be non-existent.

I could go on for a many, many more paragraphs on these subjects, but I'll lose focus and probably bore my readers (all three of you), so I'll save the rest for further blog entries. Hopefully that will help me parcel it out better, and help each entry to target specific subjects.