By Michael Woyton
Happy Tax Day to everyone who celebrates.
I’ve paid my fair share of taxes over the years and always have done so willingly. I wish we could say the same for churches and billionaires.
As of this writing, both the taxes owed and estimated have already been claimed by the IRS from respective bank accounts, making it less onerous than having to physically write a check and find a mailbox.
The pain is there, but it’s fleeting.
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A check of presidential terms shows I have actually paid 51 percent of my taxes while members of the Democratic Party were sitting in the Oval Office.
I probably did my share of grumbling while paying “blue” taxes and “red” taxes, but I never really thought about how that hard-earned tax money would be spent until this year.
The words “I don’t wanna pay any more money to this administration than I have to” were uttered in my household more once, to be honest, over the past few weeks.
Think about what President Donald J. Felon has done in the first 85 days of his second administration.
Putting aside the massive downturn in my 401(k)s — “massive” being a completely relative number — Elon “Swasticar” Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has promised to reduce the 2026 federal government’s budget by $1 trillion by Sept. 30, which is the end of the current fiscal year, the New York Times reported.
On Thursday at a cabinet meeting, the king of electric ugly trucks said he now “anticipated the group would save about $150 billion, 85 percent less than its objective,” the Times said.
However, an analysis of Musk’s claims by the Times said there were a lot of inflated numbers caused by errors and guesses, including canceling a contract that didn’t even exist and the occasional mixup with “billion” and “million.” I mean, who doesn’t do that?
All of those erroneous savings come with a price, naturally.
Avi Asher-Shapiro of NPR said on March 1 his team had found that DOGE started with a budget of $750,000 but that quickly grew to about $40 million within the first month of the administration, with much of the money coming under the heading of technology modernization work or IT work.
“But we don’t know if that’s the beginning or the end of it,” Asher-Shapiro said. “We don’t know if it’s $40 million a month for the entirety of the initiative, which would be a staggering sum, or if it’s $40 million for the entire year.”
Some of the employees of DOGE are suckling at the governmental teat, while not being restricted from drawing salaries from other non-governmental organizations, as they slash and burn their way through Washington, D.C.
Wired reported that some DOGErs make between $120,000 annually to a maximum of $195,200 a year from U.S. taxpayers.
Don’t go fretting about the richest man in the world getting by on a government salary. Musk isn’t getting paid by the government, but he continues to receive contracts for services that have brought in more than $38 billion over the past 20 years. And, of course, he’s well-placed to whisper in his co-president’s ear that he be willing to sell more technology to the U.S. and increase his coffers.
Aside from Musk and DOGE, the adjudicated rapist continues to tear up the greens at his vacation properties, having spent more than 27 percent of his time in office golfing since the second inauguration.
As of March 29, taxpayers are estimated to have paid more than $26 million for the president’s golf outings, HuffPost said. The money includes costs to move his motorcade equipment and security personnel and to fly Air Force 1.
HuffPost said the $26 million figure is based on costs in 2017, so it’s almost certainly higher now.
Keep in mind that when the mayor of Mar-a-Lago returns to his country club he ends up making money on the deal, renting out rooms and golf carts. Plus, golfing gets him out of official duties such as honoring deceased soldiers being returned to Dover AFB. You can’t put a price tag on that!
Adding to the cost of this administration are salaries being paid to people such as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi “Dog Killer” Noem and Defense Secretary Pete “WhiskyLeaks” Hegseth.
I could go on naming other reprehensible members of the convicted felon’s cabinet and staff — I’m looking at you Stephen Miller — but my point is that I hate like hell to be contributing to the salaries of these sycophants.
Not only are they being paid for on-the-job training, but their salaries could very well be based on how much they suck up to the man in orange makeup.
I hope that someday it is revealed how much we are paying AG Pam Bondi and her so-called lawyers to keep Kilmar Abrego Garcia locked up illegally in an El Salvador hell hole prison by obfuscating and lying to federal judges.
Please, Bondi, take a few bucks out of petty cash and buy a copy of the Constitution and read it. That would be money well spent.
So yeah, my taxes are paid for this year, and I hate more than I can describe that what I am contributing is helping to fund the administration of someone who should have been forced out of the race when he made fun of a disabled reporter.
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