With all of the myriad subjects that are coming to light in view of the upcoming election, war and religion not withstanding, the horror of taxation begs comment.

Our first president of the United States instigated and enforced the Whiskey Tax to pay off Revolutionary War debts. That’s all I’ve got to say about whiskey taxes but I’m just getting cranked up about taxes in general.

From what I can figger out, a bunch of folks say, “just because we’re poor, it just ain’t fair for us to pay a whopper of a percentage on the national scale to subsidize the debts of the country: And how much money do we owe China?”

We have another bunch sayin,’ “Just because we are making money through our own business sense and initiative and provide jobs for the poor and middle class, we need a tax cut because we provide jobs with these tax cuts. And how much are we going to have to pay back China?”

Both sides of this little scrap to determine the next loafer in the oval office have legitimate points which will no doubt continue to be hashed out.

Having interviewed all the members of the Moccasin Bend Wildlife Reserve, as well as the occupants of several interstate beer joints, 61.3 percent of the participants in the Ricky Harpole polls agreed that there ought to be a straight, across-the-board tax on every dollar.

The tax should be collected every time money is spent, whether it be a five dollar purchase at Wally World or a $30 billion wire transfer to a Swiss bank account. It was conceded that would take care of all taxes owed on every transaction.

A few dissenters said, “It wouldn’t work; it would put all those struggling I.R.S. agents out of a job. That’s a nasty way to balance the budget.”

I pointed out that those working citizens would gladly be accepted into our Border Patrol, Homeland Security Agency or Drug Enforcement Agency with full retirement benefits. Or they could take a course at Langly, VA and join the foreign service like Hillary Clinton. At least that way you could go to sleep at night knowing your taxes were paid.

Then maybe we could start paying China for whatever as a country we owe them for. I never authorized anyone to borrow any money from anybody, especially China.

It especially gripes me that the crooks in Congress get paid and get raises at their own discretion while all American taxpayers foot the bill and at my level I am subsisting on baloney and stale crackers from the bent can store.

Had enough,

Ricky Harpole

P.S. Have any of y’all ever had a job where you could give yourself a raise in earnings.

(Contact Harpole at www.facebook.com/harpolive or www.colespointrecords.com)