As various tax-related mail begins to appear in the mailboxes of hardworking Americans across the country, it’s instructive for all of us to reflect on why we carry the burden of our government every April.

Take this morning, for instance. We can credit the “ingenuity of the markets”, and specifically the ingenuity of John Thain, for moving annual executive bonus payments by Merrill Lynch up by a month last November, thus disbursing $15 billion in executive bonuses just before closing Merrill’s acquisition by Bank of America. Fast forward a few months, and the United States taxpayer just gave Bank of America another $20 billion in newly-borrowed funds to put a band-aid on mortar wounds in Merrill Lynch’s balance sheet.

Doesn’t that make you relish the withholding from your paycheck? Seventy-five percent of the cash payment from our latest Bank of America bailout went directly to Merrill Lynch executives.

But wait, there’s more. Large companies predictably demonstrate that the best ways to embrace economic challenges are cost cutting, layoffs, and vaguely-defined attempts at increasing operational efficiency. One underappreciated source of operational efficiency is office redecorating — and in early 2008, John Thain spent $1.2 million renovating his office in Merrill Lynch’s midtown Manhattan office.

Please don’t misunderstand — I have nothing against a $1.2 million office overhaul paid for by Merrill Lynch. I simply object to an office overhaul followed by a massive transfusion from American taxpayers. Where’s my feng shui?

If you’re concerned about where your money is going as you pay taxes this April, I can think of several ways to respond. On one hand, I’d encourage you to consider the American banking system as a new national park. You’ve paid over $350 billion already, with trillions in future guarantees. In the case of Bank of America, the most recent $138 billion bailout dwarfs its market capitalization, so you own it just as certainly as you own Yosemite.

Visit the offices of local TARP-receiving banks. Enjoy a cup of coffee, admire the decorations on the walls. If you’ve been laid off, evicted, or otherwise having trouble making ends meet, you might try camping in the parking lot or on the leather couches inside.

If, however, you’ve had enough of the squandering of our nation’s wealth propping up a pyramid scheme that dwarfs Bernie Madoff’s wildest dreams, you might consider sending your Representative a message on February first. Or perhaps you can convince your Senator that it’s a bad idea to confirm a Treasury secretary who can’t even use TurboTax.

In the cold, hard light of current events, and considering that the vast majority of income tax collected goes simply to cover interest payments on a national debt created by the same banking system we are bailing out, I ask again:

Why do you pay taxes?

Taxes were on the forefront of many Americans’ minds this week as they scrambled to meet the April 15th deadline to file their returns.  Tax policy in this country hurts taxpayers twice – once when they pay taxes, and then when the government spends the money.  Americans are sick and tired of the financial burden and the endless forms to fill out.

To add insult to injury, after collecting this money the government does some very detrimental things to the economy.

The burden of complying with the income tax is tremendous.  Since its inception in 1913, the tax code has gone from 400 pages to over 67,000.  The Tax Foundation estimates that around $265 billion dollars and 6 billion hours are spent just on compliance.  That expense amounts to about 22 cents of every dollar the IRS collects.

Imagine the boon to the economy if we spent that time and money expanding our businesses and creating jobs!

Aside from the direct loss of money and productivity, the funds from the income tax enable the government to do some very destructive things, such as vastly over-regulating economic activity, making it difficult to earn money in the first place.  The federal government funds over 50 agencies, departments and commissions that formulate rules and regulations.  These bureaucracies operate with little to no oversight from the people or Congress and generate around 4,000 new rules every year and operate at a cost of about 40 billion dollars.

There are some 75,000 pages of regulations in the Federal Register that Americans are expected to know and abide by.  Complying with these governmental regulations costs American businesses more than one trillion dollars per year, according to a study by Mark Crain for the Small Business Administration.  This complicated system drives production to other countries and shrinks our job market here at home.

Big government is destructive when it takes your money and when it spends it.   There is no economic benefit to supporting a government sector as massive as ours.  In fact, this country thrived for well over 100 years without an income tax.

Today, if you took away the income tax, the government would still have revenue from other sources equal to total government spending in 1990, when government was still too big.  $1.2 trillion should be more than enough to fund a government operating within its constitutional confines, and that is exactly what we need to get back to.

I have introduced legislation many times to abolish the IRS and the income tax.  It is fundamentally un-American to require taxpayers to testify against themselves and be considered guilty until proven innocent.  Abolishing the IRS altogether would trigger an avalanche of real growth in the economy.

With these financial hard times only just beginning, this would be the most efficient and logical way to get our economy growing again, and Americans would need not dread the 15th of April every year.

As reported by the AP (vis CBS News):

Spending to cover the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan next year will total nearly $200 billion, according to a budget request the White House will take to Congress next week, making 2008 the most expensive year of those conflicts to date.

The news was first reported by the Los Angeles Times, which cited unnamed Pentagon officials.

The Bush administration has earlier this year said it would need $147.5 billion for fiscal 2008, but the estimates have been raised by another $47 billion. This request is in addition to the Pentagon’s nearly half-trillion annual budget, which omits war spending but covers routine costs, including training, payrolls and weapons procurement.

To keep it simple – that’s over $16 Billion – every single month.  $16 billion that’s taken from you by force and given to the merchants of death – the weapons makers, the contractors, and the like.

A war that can continually be funded through the coercive method of taxation is one that’s not easy to end.

Yet another reason why the income tax needs to go.