“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Two
centuries later, Benjamin Franklin’s evaluation of taxation in America remains
astonishingly relevant. Our nation began as, and continues to represent, a land of
freedom and opportunity. The popular notion of the American Dream as an iconic
national symbol of prosperity and upward social mobility has served, and will
continue to serve, as a model of what Americans hope to achieve. However, the
rights and liberties bestowed upon us do not come without a cost.

The success of any nation is predicated on the presence, or lack of, money. As
blunt as this assertion may seem, it is a clear-cut statement of fact. Social security, national defense, health insurance, safety net programs, education, transportation
and more cannot continue to exist without a steady flow of capital. And where does
this money come from? It comes from the tax dollars paid by the American people.

According to Business Insider, the annual federal budget is $3.5 trillion. Although this is a staggering statistic,
one must bear in mind the fact that the estimated U.S. population in 2012, U.S. News reports, is 312.8 million people. Based on this, the total federal budget
would allow for $11,189.26 of allocated spending for each American. Certainly,
there are many caveats in drawing such a conclusion; the most significant being
that tax allocation is primarily aimed at providing for the greater good, meaning
that its effect on individual citizens will inevitably vary. However, for the sake of
deconstructing abstract data, understanding where each American citizen factors
into the ostensibly abstract bureaucratic system of taxation is important.

Due to the considerable burden that taxes impose on the majority of Americans,
it is very apparent why taxation perennially remains an extremely contentious
issue. Money, by its very nature, is a sensitive topic regardless of one’s social class.
Perhaps the only entity more likely to inspire controversy among Americans is the federal government itself. Bearing this in mind, placing tax dollars in the hands
of the U.S. government is arguably the most contended requisite of American
citizenship.

Public apprehension surrounding taxation is undoubtedly warranted. Having faith
in our national governing body to appropriately and pragmatically allocate the hard-earned dollars of the American people is deeply rooted in the presence or absence
of trust. More often than not, there exists a balance between trust and doubt that
preserves stability between the government and the governed by holding both
parties accountable. In other words, citizens fulfill the obligations of citizenry by
paying taxes with the expectation that the government will spend their money
mindfully and altruistically.

Although certain issues are consistently divided along partisan lines, there are many
problems that should not be perceived as partisan at all, but rather universal. For
example, poverty is an issue that directly or indirectly affects all Americans. For
those that live in poverty, fundamental resources necessary for achieving a basic quality of life such as food, health care and employment are often out of reach. As a
result, a significant portion of American tax dollars are channeled toward alleviating
many of the symptoms of poverty.

According to Business Insider, $732 billion of the $3.5 trillion of the annual federal
budget is spent on health insurance, with roughly two-thirds of that quantity going
directly to Medicaid. In addition, $496 billion of the budget is used to fund safety
net programs including food stamps, housing assistance, school meals, et cetera. At first
glance, these contributions seem disproportionately large. However with 46.2
million Americans living beneath the official poverty line as of 2010, as reported by The New York Times, quite the opposite is true. This nation needs to channel
money toward improving the quality of life for all Americans in order to improve the
nation as a whole. Only through increased spending on critical areas including social
welfare, health insurance and education can this be achieved. The money for this
must come from American taxpayers.

As American citizens, we must accept the immeasurable importance of taxation.
Although it often seems as though tax dollars flow into a misguided stream that
never reaches the areas and people that need it most, it is critical to recognize that
the course of this money stream is driven by the powerful currents of partisanship.
As with all government issues, the nature of a multi-party system dictates that the
nation will never reach a perfect consensus on how best to apportion taxpayer
dollars. However, a certain level of compromise is absolutely necessary. We must
collectively accept the reality that the progress of the nation is predicated on
sufficient funding via taxation. As the idiom goes, “money doesn’t grow on trees,”
and neither does prosperity.

Hannah Sleznikow ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in political science.