Now, I sat down today and did a rough figure of my taxes. As I played with the numbers, I realized that it would probably take me better than 40 hours to complete my returns, and that I did not have those 40 hours to give (what with First Responder training and Paralegal training, as well as the campaign...I'm simply swamped). There's simply too much to do.

So I took it to a tax preparer, and instead, spent 2 hours answering questions (I could have netted a bigger return myself because of how she figured things, but again...that's considering time I simply DO NOT have). The refund I'm receiving made me quite POSITIVE that I actually paid in well more in taxes than what I received in a refund...but I digress. It was a fairly painless process, but I was almost floored by one of the questions towards the end of the session.

You see, the tax return had identified me as eligible for certain government programs, and asked if I would like government information on applying for those programs.

To say the least, I was shocked. I said "no", as I am personally against entitlements, and try to avoid ANY sort of publicly funded welfare. But I was somewhat surprised the question would even be asked.

One of my oppositions to these government programs is that local and county governments often use participation in these programs as "identifiers" for families they feel might need further "services". If you receive WIC, or you receive food stamps, you've pretty much flagged your family, as far as the government is concerned. It's simply not worth the dollar value of the benefits you receive to put your family through that (frankly, I'm sorta glad this is the case; if there weren't such concerns, I might be tempted to compromise my position in this area).

But I'm becoming increasingly concerned that we are entering an era where the government will FORCE you to receive these entitlements.