I am tired of reading and watching the news because of all the stories about our government at many levels such as the pending U.S. government shutdown or the city of Portland instituting a rainwater fee. I wouldn’t disagree with the fact that a government shutdown might be a good thing but unfortunately my retirement check is part of the Department of Defense budget and when the military has no budget, neither do I. So if you hear me screaming on Oct. 1, you’ll know why.

I can fully understand why some people consider our government more criminal than the mafia as I have a friend who loves to say that the government could teach the mafia a thing or two about stealing. Just look at the Internal Revenue Service as a perfect example of what I mean. Actually I believe it should be renamed the Eternal Revenue Service but that’s just my thought. If the government owes you money it can take its sweet time getting it to you, without any interest accrued. If you owe the IRS, state of Maine or the town of Windham, you will have to pay interest fees if you’re late and in the case of the IRS or Maine, penalties as well. Seems to me our Founding Fathers had a huge problem with that.

Can you imagine if a business attempted to operate like Washington, D.C., or Augusta? Mom and Pop stores would be out of business faster than a flash of lightning. More than likely prices for everything would skyrocket faster than Anthony Weiner’s temper during his recent attempt to be mayor of New York City. We would shun those businesses as if they carried the Plague. Here’s the bad news. Voters are so disgusted by the actions of our politicians in our nation’s capital and yet they keep electing many of them for decades, so in the end who is really responsible for what we get for government?

What I find scary is how municipalities or states look at each other for better methods of pillaging our bank accounts, especially if no one is paying attention. One perfect example is Windham officials discussing how to expand and raise the fees for permits through the code enforcement office. Oh that’s right, other towns around us are doing that so if Windham doesn’t raise fees to their level, it makes us look bad to other local governments. I see no reason for something like that to change unless we finally get smart and elect to office those who believe in government of the people, by the people, for the people.

Before I hit upon stormwater runoff, there’s talk in Congress about letting states decide whether they change any of their roads to toll roads like the Maine Turnpike. That could get interesting because obviously states would want to place tolls on roads that would collect the most money. I have to believe that routes 302 and 202 along with the River Road in Windham would be perfect examples of roads to collect money in order to increase state revenue. There’s always talk about authorizing municipalities in Maine to collect sales taxes so can you imagine if the state allowed the same for town-owned toll roads in Windham and elsewhere? Just in case one doesn’t know, there is already talk of taxing our vehicles by the mile because we are driving them less and fuel economy has improved to the point where the federal government is not collecting enough revenue to repair roads and bridges adequately.

I might as well end with the bad news. We often hear from the liberals that big corporations need to be taxed more. Do you know who gets the biggest tax breaks? If you don’t, it’s you and me. A recent article in USA Today stated that 90 percent of tax credits, loopholes and deductions were for individuals, not corporations.

Lane Hiltunen, of Windham, suspects that government wants more of our money, lot’s more.

“There was a time when a fool and his money were soon parted, but now it happens to everybody.”

Adlai E. Stevenson,

American politician.