Craig,
I don't think anyone objects to taxes.
I think they understand the need for taxes at the municipal, county, state and Federal level.
What almost everyone objects to is waste in government, and excess taxes.
With respect to entitlement programs, I think most object to the 20 and out pensions, where the participant worked triple time their last year in order to exponentially inflate their benefit, at the cost of gazillions to taxpayors. You can't do that in private industry and you shouldn't be able to do it in the public sector.
Those in charge negotiated those contracts and gave away taxpayor dollars because it was no skin off their nose.
They weren't accountable, and it wasn't their money being spent and committed.
They promised benefits without any consideration to the ultimate cost.
They should have had to live by the same laws, accounting and actuarial principles that the private sector had to live by.
Today, a 39 year old who retired on a disabilty pension of $ 30,000 in NJ, is being brought to task because he's actively employed in North Carolina as a fireman. There's more than a few things that don't seem to pass the smell test.
1. Do you know how expensive it is to provide a lifetime pension for someone who is 39 ?
2. Do you know how expensive it is to provide a lifetime pension to someone who is 39, with a spouse.
3. Do you know how expensive it is to provide a lifetime pension for someont who is 39 who exponentially increases their pension
in the last year or so of their employment
4. Do you know how expensive it is to provide a lifetime pension to their replacement, and their replacement's spouse, and then,
their replacement and their replacement's spouse
It's financial insanity that gets worse and worse as each 20 year generation retires in their 40's.