Tax Day 2013
To Whom It May Concern,
Hello. This is my third year being a war tax resister. Each year I have written a letter to my representatives and the commissioner of the IRS as to what my intentions are, why I’m resisting and what I do with the money instead. I just wanted to send my letter along to NWTRCC as well, as I have done each previous year. So below is my letter I’m sending out this year along with the “Pie Chart” flyers from the War Resisters League.
Dear Representative,
Hello. As it is tax time again, I would like to invite you to join me and many others as we stand up for the right of people in other countries to freely live without fear of war and death at their doorstep.
As you can see from the enclosed flyer, 45% of the U.S. taxpayer’s dollars goes toward military spending. I often hear how America is “fighting the war on terror”, yet America is the one going into other countries, bombing them, killing men women and children. How is America not the real terrorist? And of course the 45% figure above says nothing of the amount of taxpayer money used in the Black Budget.
On top of all this, we have so many problems that need to be dealt with in our own country such as a failing education and health care system as well as homelessness. How is it that the richest country in the world cannot do what many other countries have been doing for decades, provide decent education and healthcare for everyone and a safe place to live?
Though America at this point doesn’t try to provide decent education, healthcare and housing for everyone, there somehow is plenty of money to bail out big banks and Wall Street. “Currently, we are continuing to bail out Wall Street with ‘Quantitative Easing’ at $85 billion a month which obviously isn’t working because we’ve been doing it for several years now. Why not bail out students? Why not make public higher education free which in fact would pay for itself? We know that from The G.I. Bill investing in public higher education pays back $7 for every $1 invested.” – Jill Stein on Moyers & Company
Additionally, taxpayers subsidize excessive CEO pay for fast food companies because a loophole in the tax code lets companies deduct the cost of performance based executive pay. – “Fast FoodCEOs Rake In Taxpayer-Subsidized Pay” by Sarah Anderson
Of the 156 prisoners at Guantanamo, 76 have been cleared for release, some as long as 6 years ago. It costs taxpayers $2.7 million per Guantanamo prisoner per year, that’s $421.2 million per year or $7400 per inmate per day. Guantanamo reference
There is a human trafficking system that brings thousands of laborers to work on U.S. military bases. These laborers end up deceived and indebted. The U.S. taxpayer pays for this human trafficking directly. – Sam McCahon “America’s War Workers”
The above excerpts are just a few examples of the multitude of corrupt issues I think the general taxpayer is often unknowingly funding. Therefore, I’m not refusing to pay this 45% of my taxes, I’m redirecting that money. Collectively we could do tremendous good with our money, unfortunately however, what we are doing with at least 45% of taxpayer dollars for military spending disheartens me and is in direct opposition to my conscience, so I cannot in good conscience pay this money. However, please understand that I’m paying the money where our taxes should go and whenever our taxes are used for humanitarian purposes such as education, health care and housing I’ll be happy to pay my taxes in full.
Sincerely,
Kevin Martonick
