Tax Time Blues (and Reds)

Well I did it. I e-filed my tax returns through Turbotax. I didn't have a job for most of last year since I was in school and yet the amount of tax I paid was almost as much as what I paid the previous year! Someone once famously said that the only two things that are certain are death and taxes. And against the backdrop of the election year in the US and the bitter fight for nomination between Obama and Clinton, I started to think of how the positions and actions of the Democrats and Republicans on taxes and economy in general are so antithetic to what they claim to be their respective core values.

Benny (our Fed chief) and his friends who brokered the JPM-Bear deal were facing some music from the senate banking committee this afternoon and while the democrats were asking why greedy banks shouldn't learn the lesson the hard way, the republicans were congratulating Ben for orchestrating a great rescue through socialism for the rich (this is quickly getting the nick name Bear-Stearns Socialism). Clinton presided over the smallest government in the recent times while Reagan and the two bushes expanded the government against everything their party's fiscal conservatism stands for.

By the way, I got a political survey phone call yesterday. You could only answer in Yes or No. This is how it went -

Q. Are you planning to vote this November?
A. No (*I cannot yet vote*)
Q. Assuming it is McCain vs. Clinton, would you vote for McCain?
A. No
Q. For Clinton?
A. No
Q. Okay, if the scenario were McCain vs. Obama, would you vote for McCain?
A. No
Q. For Obama?
A. Yes (*well I still cannot vote but I just wanted to see where this will take me*)
Q. Are you pro-life?
A. No (*I was hoping the next question would be Are you pro-choice?*)
Thanks for participating in the survey...

So though I cannot vote, I have unwittingly added to the statistic - percentage of "anti-life" voters who support Obama!

Btw, I was able to claim an extra child credit for my one year old who was born in 2007 but I began to think why couldn't I claim an extra exemption last year when my wife was pregnant... all this debate over when life starts and no exemption for a foetus?