I like taxes. There, I said it.

[lapislzi]

Without going into too much detail, my daughter has some mental health issues that have resulted in suicide attempts and hospitalizations. During her most recent hospitalization, the inpatient therapist set up a meeting with caseworkers at our state's department of Children and Family Services for follow up care in addition to regular therapy.

Now, insurance pays not one cent for the hospital stay, ambulance trip, outpatient care, or ongoing therapy. I repeat: no mental health services at all on my or my ex's insurance. As you might guess, this has run into several thousand dollars, which my ex and I are struggling to keep up with. We both earn good salaries, which helps.

My daughter and I had a long session with a county social worker, who set up a "team" meeting. It was like a giant curtain had been lifted. No fewer than six professionals attended this meeting to coordinate a treatment plan including substance abuse counseling, crisis intervention, medication management, educational and vocational counseling, and parent support. They will even accompany my daughter to her court appearance next week.

My daughter has been assigned a permanent Intensive Case Manager, who will monitor her weekly for up to the next 18 months. The social worker in charge of the meeting reminded us several times that ANY of the people at the meeting could be called at any time for advice, questions, or referrals.

At the end of the meeting, we were handed a lot of papers. Here's the fine print at the bottom of one of the handouts:

"There is not direct fee for case management services. When applicable, Medicaid is billed for services. No client is denied services, regardless of Medicaid eligibility. Dept. of Family and Children's Services does not deny treatment to anyone because of inability to pay."

Read that again. How much did approximately 8 hours of professional time cost? Zero. At the end of the meeting, I piped up to ask, "where do I sign up to pay more taxes? Because you people are incredible, and I want you to keep your jobs."

Imagine that. A public agency providing, you know, services to people who need them. Give me more taxes.

[lisa58]

1. I know what you mean. I remember when my husband and his former...

...right-wing partner were becoming successful. The partner was figuring out all kinds of ways to not pay taxes (legally), but my husband just said, "I can't wait to pay those taxes".

[Jim Warren]

2. Taxes should be a good investment

One of the best actually, for they are the price we pay to live in a civil society.

[Bluerthanblue]

10. something my father said often-

:hi:

[RKP5637]

3. Agree with you sooooo much, and this is an example of how a

civilized country is supposed to function. We all share in taxes knowing it helps one another. Those thinking they are an island are damn fools or extremely wealthy and on the take, and often both.

[gateley]

4. I actually like the IDEA of taxes to provide for services as

you mention, defense, stuff like that. I like the IDEA that we all pitch in and support our country.

I DON'T like that we really don't get a say in how they're spent, and that they manage their money far more poorly than we have to manage ours.

[and-justice-for-all]

5. I like taxes too, when they are untilized effectivly...

for things like infrastructure, health care, Education...etc and not for feeding the war machine.

[ejpoeta]

7. well there lies the problem. corporate money in elections makes it almost impossible to not

have representatives who are not beholden to these people. The only way to break that is to sever private money from public office and running for office. How to do that is the question.

[and-justice-for-all]

12. It gets outlawed...

corporate funds pumped into a democracy is an atrocity.

[ejpoeta]

6. In our state thanks to a law named after a kid who I think committed suicide

because of shenanigans from insurance companies regarding mental health and coverage, they are required to cover mental health at the same rate they cover a specialist. We had to educate the mental health clinic about it, but it brought our copays down from $50/visit to $20/visit. It's ridiculous what they get away with. I am glad that you are getting help. We were also able to get sliding scale, but that is because we were low income. We are now on state health insurance which covers all my mental health meds and counseling which really helps. I hope that you can get your daughter on the right track. It's horrible to live in the darkness. I don't ever want to go back there.

And yes.... taxes are worth it. We do get a lot for our investment. People don't seem to realize it. They take things for granted and don't think about them. Roads... clean air... water... Safe cars... so many things we have come to not even notice in our daily lives that we can take for granted because we pay taxes and our government assures that they are safe.

[hfojvt]

8. I like taxes too

for you :P

Actually a couple of years ago I decided to support the Obama adminstration, so instead of getting a tax refund, I used the line to apply my refund to next years taxes, even though I knew I would not owe any taxes next year either. I did that the following year too and was prepared to do it for as long as Obama was in office.

But after Obama caved on the Bush tax cuts, I decided that he did not deserve my support any more, so I demanded a full refund this year. As I wrote on my tax form "Ask not what I can do for my country, ask rather what people with ten times my AGI can do."

[steelmania75]

9. I personally feel that if Americans were offered free healthcare, affordable college education,

a modern and innovative infrastructure, and a pension/Social Security check there for you to collect it at age 65, most people would take having higher taxes to pay for those things. US total tax revenue is only less than 15% of GDP, the lowest since the 1950's. Meanwhile, the government is spending at 25% of GDP, there is a huge gap there. I think we need to take a European approach to this, and tax between 35-40% of GDP, similar to countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. 40% of US GDP of $14.772 trillion would equal $5.9 trillion dollars in revenue. Now, I'm not asking for revenue to be this high in the middle of a recession, but if we ever recover, we should consider doing this. The money would rebuild America.

[lapislzi]

11. Agree 112%

Service cuts have a ripple effect. When social services are cut, everyone suffers. The laid-off public sector workers have less money to put into the local economy. The quality of life goes down for the community as the sick go untreated, adding further pressure to the infrastructure in the form of emergency services.

If the schools are crappy because of service cuts (one guidance counselor for 8,000 kids, or no art or music education), who's going to want to move to your town to enrich the tax base? Who wants to open a business in an area that's becoming run down?

It seems so simple to me. Taxes make your life better. And everyone else's.

[and-justice-for-all]

13. By 'free', you mean paid for via taxes...

america can not achieve such things when the mentality is still imperialistic. Other countries can provide health care and education because they are not running around policing the world.

[Rex]

14. Don't be ashamed, you are on a progressive board and we

all believe the best method is tax AND spend not just spendspendspendspend...