hi um i'm Ralph um Cincinnati Cincinnati
hi Ralph
um uh the the machine said that the topic was uh taxes
yeah um weather we pay too much or uh maybe we got back what we
uh because we got i guess to die for what we paid
okay well i'm i'm ready anytime that you want to start
okay
um let's see i guess we got one
oh
okay
um
oh yeah go head
well let's see i guess uh since i'm in the process of filling them out i guess i kind of fill like uh
um
it's it is too much but i don't know what i uh cut out i guess
no i i know what you mean we're in the process of doing ours and
it it it does seems like a lot uh
i wish i had a better feeling for
uh a better breakdown rather than oh well you know X X billions of dollars go to defense and X billions of dollars go here
it it it's hard i i have a hard time conceiving of any larger amount of money then say uh really a couple thousand dollars every thing else is
is like Monopoly money it it's so larger you don't really have a personal feeling for it if you go to by a new car
you get a better feeling for for what's going on but even then it usually most of that is is finance through the bank and you not actually holding the money in your hands
um-hum
but uh
i
Americans in general well
i i would like to see a little bit better return for the the social program i actually don't mind paying taxes for things like social programs helping people out
because my basic philosophy is that that most people are out to mess with the system most people actually
generally want to work or want to to make themselves better and they are not lazy i don't believe that everybody is out there to rip of the system
um-hum
but there is a hold lot of bureaucracy and so many places for the money to fall through the cracks that
after a while it becomes to easy and and and people uh
say well oh sure well we we haven't plan ahead so we could spend twice as much as as what we really need that's okay we will just let it go and
and then it comes down to the crunch and crisis management and oh well just spend another few thousands dollars and
hum
so there there's no good handle on it no one i guess feels really responsible in those situation and all that money adds up and you have enormous cost in the government and people get angry and upset
hum
that's interesting but uh i guess that's uh something that happen when there is so many people involved
each one fill like they
take a responsibility for
um
making sure that thing work the way there suppose to or something
but um i never really thought of it that way but
huh
i guess there seems like their some programs that are more valuable
and other that be
that be useful to have more uh
sort of tax payer involvement in some of that decision making
oh sure yeah i know i agree with you on that what sort of a involvement with with something like maybe oh a defenses a little hard but
but what sort of involvement uh
would we be able to do what type of oversight would you like to see on that
um
i know maybe just in the point of you know having focus group with uh or elected representative will be one
solutions where they actually
maybe they do have more in some area of the country then then where i'm from but it's
i think it's rare to actually no
like you can influence what uh your representative is really doing because if you know if even if there's even a lot of writing campaign chances are there'll be a lot of letters on both sides of the issue
particularly if if it is a controversial bill or something like that
huh yeah
well here it here in Massachusetts i mean we have a just like the rest of the country we have a a server budget problem and
and often here uh people
are are angry about their taxes being so high
and the ideal of the higher taxes is help us to pay off the high deficit in the state
um-hum
and many people fall back on well there's money there's a lot of money being misspent its all there we do have to do anything except well it's all out there somewhere
um-hum
and the the next step is to identify where
