Proud to Be an American. Proud to Pay Taxes.

I read this USA Today article, "Yes, I Love Paying Taxes," with interest. Like the author, I am proud to be an American and am happy to pay my share for all of the things our great country provides its citizens.

I'm happy to pay for our lawmakers salaries, the Federal Reserve, highways, public education, health care for most Americans, social security for the elderly, defense, homeland security, SSI, food stamps, school meals, housing assistance, veterans benefits, research (medical, energy, space, technology, and a myriad of other things), the space program, aid to other countries, national parks, the postal service, foreign embassies, federal prisons, unemployment compensation, assistance to college students . . . and the list goes on and on.

I'm not thrilled my tax dollars are still paying for Bush's senseless war, but I didn't form a crybaby Tee-Tee Party over it, and I know elections matter, which is why I am politically engaged.

I pay my taxes for the privilege of being an American, and I thank all of those who have fought on the battlefields and on the campaign fields and in the halls of government to make our country great. My part is small - writing a check - in comparison to the very real sacrifices of so many.

As a P.S., for those who are whining and hollering about their taxes being "too high," consider this and know that if you are paying more taxes than you used to, you are probably also making considerably more money than you used to, so take an expensive vacation or buy a 50-inch flatscreen toy and calm down:

America's overall effective federal tax rate, or the percentage of income that households fork over — in the form of individual, corporate, payroll and excise taxes — was 20.7% in 2006, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office's most recent calculation (2009). The lowest-earning fifth of Americans paid roughly 4.3% of their income in federal taxes, the middle fifth 14.2% and the top fifth 25.8%. Today these rates are lower for every income bracket, except the richest fifth, than in 1982, when President Reagan's first historic massive tax cuts went into effect. For all the recent grief doled on Uncle Sam, federal tax rates have remained remarkably flat, or often declined, over the past 30 years.

Moreover, taxes on the average single worker— including personal income taxes and employer-paid taxes on the worker's behalf — are lower in the USA than in any G-8 democracy (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, theUnited Kingdom), except for Japan, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a non-partisan international organization that supports democracy and free markets.

Looking at federal tax rates over time, or comparing America with its closest competitors, our federal income taxes cannot plausibly be called "too high."