Let Bush tax cuts expire so the U.S. government can govern again and prevent further lending/banking disasters

We the citizens of the U.S. wish to be governed by the government of the United States and not by big business or private industry who does not represent us in a truly democratic fashion since were not able to vote on who owns/runs large corporations or vote on the fashion in which they "govern" their companies, which may not always be in an honest, fair, ethical or moral fashion.

We, in fact like the democratic process and would like our government and government regulatory bodies to be fully funded and staffed to protect the environment, the poor, which includes the elderly and children, and to monitor and regulate the actions of the owners of big business/investing etc. when we feel their interests conflict with ours and those who they employ to an extent which is dangerous or detrimental to the greater good of our country or citizens.

In order for our government to do this.....to govern....or to protect the vulnerable from possible abuse or neglect by the powerful, it must have an adequete but not excessive tax base.

Slashing taxes, seems to us, to be an attempt to underfund the regulatory processes of government and the government itself who we have elected to hopefully represents and protect us and our best interests.

In fact, enormous tax cuts could be seen as an anarchic act by certain elements in the government itself who have been unduly influenced or deceived by the wealthy into undermining the government's ability to monitor, regulate and govern the private sector.....in particuliar big business.

This undermining, underfunding or lack of support of government and regulatory bodies within the government by corrupt/corrupted political leaders etc. allows the wealthy/powerful to act with disregard and impunity against the greater good and the poor.

Although we know that government can be "too big" and intrusive we feel that the underfunding and restriction of U.S. government regulatory bodies through enormous tax cuts and anti-government ideology by certain elements in the government itself has left us, and our money and our democratic government at the mercy of the wealthy/powerful

These wealthy/powerful minority interests have been allowed to have free reign and dictate to our government regulatory bodies, politicians and people the method in which our system of capitalism should be run which has worked against our better interest, as is now evident, with the enormous financial crisis we are now in.

Although we don't want government that is more personally intrusive or that takes away the personal freedoms which we now have, we would like a government which is paying attention and has our best interest in mind.

We, in fact, feel that our government has indeed been deceived by powerful, wealthy interests who have used the U.S. Stock Market/Wall Street as a testing ground for increasingly risky and complicated investing and lending schemes along with an intense resistance to the regulatory processes that would of or could have helped us to avoid the present financial crisis that the U.S. and U.S. business is now in.

Proper functioning and support by our leaders of the U.S. EPA and their ability to regulate auto/truck mileage standards could have possibly liberated the U.S. from our present intense dependence on expensive imported oil which has been shown to be a major factor in the explosion of the U.S. trade deficit and U.S. debt in general.

This same dependence on foreign oil could be said to be the driving factor behind the enormous growth of our military/military spending which is now by far the largest in the world and has been used to protect and promote oil interests/supplies worlwide to the exclusion of other interests in our country. This has also contributed to the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians worldwide directly and indirectly and also to U.S. military personel.

This military spending can and is also implicated in the growth of the astronomical U.S. debt.

Although we are calling here for the expiration of the Bush tax cuts we are in no means calling for an further increases in taxes or extreme increases in taxes which put additional burdens on U.S. citizens, but to restoration of fiscal responsibility in our government and a return to a stable tax base which is not "slashed" or raised in an extreme fashion.

We believe that taxes in moderation are essential to the proper functioning of civil government and it's regulatory bodies which respects the basic human needs and rights of the weak and/or poor. We do not wish to be called communists or socialist, we wish only for our government to be accountable to the poor, the disabled, children and the elderly in a reasonable and humane fashion.

We do not believe that the elderly, the ill, the disabled and the poor all want free handouts or that they want the government to "take care of them" but that they simply wish to live in a society which has their best interests at heart and cares for their welfare when they, or their families are not able to give them the care or financial help they need.

Any modern government must have a sufficient tax base to function in a civil manner and maintain order, not only on the streets but also in the markets, and in schools and in energy and environmental policy and in agriculture etc. without order and proper funding of regulatory bodies criminal or greedy elements from all income levels can eventually hold sway and soon all becomes a mockery of something that once was.

Therefore based on the present disordered state of our lending institutions, our trade imbalances, national debt, astronomical military/war spending and spending on imported oil, we call on and end to the Bush tax cuts which some of us have seen as an attack on civil government and an undermining of U.S. regulatory bodies which exist to protect U.S. from chaos, waste, unethical/criminal business activity and greed.....and perhaps could have prevented much of the fiscal dilemma we currently find ourselves in.

Please don't raise or slash our taxes anymore in an extreme and non-sensical way, such as when we are in a war and have massive trade deficits, oil dependence we can't afford and exploding national debt. That's like giving yourself a pay cut when your house is about to be repossessed.... let's keep the house and sufficiently and sanely fund our government.

We the undersigned agree with the statements expressed in this petition and sign below in solidarity with the author expressing our desire to let the Bush tax cuts expire to keep our government and regulatory processes solvent and functional.