Your Opinion: Federal taxation and spending

Dear Editor:

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are pushing their "tax the rich" platforms. The federal government already collects too much in taxes.

Government "receipts" have exceeded pre-recession highs every year since 2013; setting new record levels of taxation every year, yet we continue to run near record non-recession annual deficits.

In 1968 we had over 500,000 Americans fighting in Vietnam. The federal government spent 20.5 percent of GDP (up from 17.2 percent of GDP in 1965), or $6,000 (in 2015 $) per US citizen. 46 percent of that went for national defense.

In 2015 the federal government spent 20.9 percent of GDP, $11,700 per citizen. Less than 17 percent of that was for national defense. From 1968-2015 non-national defense spending increased by over 300 percent.

Bernie says, "You can't get huge tax breaks while children in this country go hungry." (No one wants an innocent child to go hungry but why do liberals never call for some accountability, personal responsibility, from those who are producing all these children?) Hillary wants a "surcharge" tax on the wealthy.

We hear that the "rich" don't pay their "fair share." 2013 data from the IRS shows that the AGI (adjusted gross income) of the top 1 percent of all filers was 19.0 percent of total AGI. They paid 37.8 percent of all income taxes. The bottom 50 percent of filers made 11.5 percent of the total AGI yet they paid only 2.8 percent of income taxes. Those in the top 1 percent paid an average of 18 times as much in income taxes as those in the bottom 50 percent, for the same, or fewer services.

In the federal budget the "Human Resources" category includes Social Security, Medicare and appears to include welfare spending, with the exception of food stamps.

In 1968, after subtracting SS and Medicare, HR spending was 17.3 percent of the federal budget. In 2015 that percentage jumped to 34.6 percent. In 1968 taxpayers paid for virtually no births. In 2015 we paid for nearly half of them, and then we pay to feed, clothe, house, educate and provide health care for most of these children. We got more of the behavior we rewarded.

Which article/section of the Constitution gives the federal government the authority to extort money from some so they can redistribute it to others?

Liberals and I have one thing in common; both of us think we know how best to spend the money I earned.