I've done a little bit of blogging in the past, but I sometimes feel like I want to do more. I have strong opinions about many things in my life, but I'm the kind of person that doesn't always say what I think, I'm more comfortable listening to what others have to say and silently saying, "You're completely wrong!"

Anyway, recently, I have been reading the blogs of my children. (You can find them in the list of blogs that I follow.) That has stirred the blogging bug in me a little so I kind of wanted to start. So here I go.

First, a little about me. I was born and raised in Utah. I am the 7th of 8 children. I am a life long member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was married at 19 years of age, and have been married for 28 years. We have 7 children. Our youngest child has Down Syndrome. Our children are involved in Track, Cross Country, Choir, Band and a whole lot of other things. 2 of them are married, and my daughter has a son, so I am a grandma. 2 others are in college and 1 daughter has a job as a floral manager at a grocery store. The 2 youngest children are in high school and middle school. My husband works for our local school district as the Network Administrator, and I prepare taxes at a well known company. Which brings me to today’s rant.

Taxes. We all pay them. We all hate them. Even your tax preparer hates them. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy preparing taxes, but I do not enjoy telling my clients that the price of having me do their taxes for them has doubled or even tripled from last year. I do not enjoy trying to sell the latest product that my company is offering. I do not enjoy explaining to my “evil rich people” as I jokingly call them, why they are not getting various credits, why they are paying ridiculous tax rates, etc. I do not enjoy telling my clients that they have a penalty because they don’t have the means to pay for their own health insurance.

I have a few suggestions on what our government leaders can do to help the situation.

1 - I believe every single member of Congress should spend the first week of February in a tax office, helping people file their taxes. If they could see what my clients who have small businesses have to deal with, maybe it might remind them who they are working for, and help them to see that business owners are not the evil people that liberals make them out to be.

2 - I think there should be only one tax rate. I don’t think the country is ready for a true flat tax, but if everyone is taxed at 10% of their taxable income, I think the government would be surprised by how many people don’t worry about itemizing.

3 - Get rid of ObamaCare. Instead, don’t allow the states to pick and choose the insurance companies that can sell in their state. Someone in California should be able to buy from the same company as someone in North Dakota. We can still require them to obtain the appropriate licenses in each state, but the states can’t put a limit on the number of companies selling insurance in that state. You’d be surprised what a little supply and demand can do to the price of insurance. About the only thing I do like in ObamaCare is the option to keep my children on my insurance longer.

4 - Congress should go back to being a part time job. Meet for 1 month and then the members have to go home and live in their states for the rest of the year. See the voters at the grocery store, DMV, school concerts, etc. I’m okay with covering their traveling costs to and from Washington, and their living expenses while there, but they should not spend so much time there, and their salaries should be nowhere near the amount they are now.


5 - Elections should be moved to April 17th. If elections are held while the pain of paying taxes is still fresh in everyone's minds, I think Congress will be a little more motivated to act in the best interest of the American people.

Well, there you have it, my opinion of Taxes and Government, for what it’s worth. I don’t know how often I will update this blog. I may never write again. Who knows. But before you get in a huff about what I’ve said, remember, the title of the blog is Downygirl’s Drivil.