Taxes. Just the word has stirred uprisings, criminal evasion, and fear for centuries. Even if the modern “Tea Party” is considered a somewhat extreme fringe movement, the original Tea Party in Boston on December 16, 1773 was all about taxes. Taxed by the far away elite body called the Parliament in England where it was felt we, the people, had no voice. Sound familiar? Sometimes it takes 250 years to wake up.

I read that 46.4% of U.S. households pay no income tax. I pay taxes. Are you and I the only ones? Are we supporting this whole “House of Cards” in Washington, with its senators, representatives, aides, committees, deputy chiefs, assistant deputy chiefs, alternative assistant deputy chiefs? I don’t see a meeting on C-SPAN without a hundred people taking notes. At least we get services for supporting them all, like driving tests, the Interstate 5 in Los Angeles, and the IRS with 73,954 of tax code (2013) to read and understand.

I started to think of $58,437 of national debt per person. That’s $233,748 for a family of four. Maybe the problem was not enough people paying taxes. Numbers started flying through my head.

The U.S. population, per the latest census, is 318,857,056. The average household is 2.5 people and as I said, 46.4% of households pay no income tax. That means 147,949,674 people pay no taxes, leaving 170,907,382 people working, paying taxes, and thereby supporting everybody. This includes me and, I think, you.

However, of that number, 44,958,845 are over the age of 65 and presumed to be retired and 74,293,694 are below the age of 18 and not yet working. That leaves 51,654,843 working and paying taxes to support all that debate and talk in Washington. Now it’s getting serious. Isn’t there anybody who realizes this? Not the Brookings Institute? Not the President’s Economic Council? Not Alan Greenspan?

My mind continued to spin and it got worse. Last year, there were an estimated 21,000,000 college students and 21,831,255 Federal and State employees, supported by the taxpayers. By my calculation, this leaves just 8,823,588 people like you and me, working our butts off, paying taxes, to take care of everything.

But then, the active military (bless them) totaled 1,361,755 leaving 7,461,833. And on any given day, an average of 5,330,091 workers are on paid vacation or unemployed.

Oh yes, I forgot. Each day, an average of 2,131,742 employees have called in sick. Well, that leaves just two people, you and me…… and I’m tired.