As American taxpayers, we usually have no direct voice when it comes to setting our own levels of taxation. Federal taxes are imposed by what has become an arrogant and uncaring United States Congress, and I mean both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

When the 535 members of Congress chose to come home and campaign, they did so without making a decision on what are usually referred to as the Bush tax cuts. Their inaction will result in a record raid on our wallets and all they had to do was sit on their hands. I don’t have to tell you why they ducked the decision before the election. You already know. They can now come home and equivocate without having to take ownership for an actual vote, keeping us all guessing until after the elections, and then go back to Washington and soak us with a massive tax increase.

When I listen to these characters, the image of Charles Durning, doing his gubernatorial Texas Two Step in the film version of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, comes immediately to mind. As you may recall, he danced back and forth killing time while awaiting poll results before committing to a decision. I think the comparison to those who now represent us in Washington is valid to the point of congruence.

I must pause here, gentle reader, to apologize to Charles Durning, as he operates at a much higher moral and ethical plane than most of those who represent us in Washington. He has been one of my favorite actors during much of my life and I wish to in no way impugn or demean him with comparisons to the 535 people mentioned above. He is, after all, an accomplished actor, dancer, decorated World War II veteran and a man for whom I have the utmost respect. Over the years, I have even cultivated and patterned my physical appearance to mimic his. But I digress.

By having no decision on the status of the Bush tax cuts, we will all go to the polls in November with a high degree of uncertainty as to whether we can afford to vote for the range of various local revenue issues such as funding for schools, roads, senior services, child protective services and more.

As we all know, it is only at the local level where we are allowed to actually go to the polls and vote for our taxation. In the Congress and in the Statehouses, our elected Two-Steppers tell us how much of our money they will allow us to keep.

Every time they squeeze us for more money through their myriad taxing schemes, we have less disposable income to allocate to our local institutions. When I am in the polling booth sweating bullets over whether I can afford to vote for one or more of my local levies, I have to do so without knowing if I am going to get zapped with an increase in my Federal income tax when the cuts expire in January. Most of our decisions to raise our local tax levels are close ones and I don’t want the greed of the Washington leviathan forcing us to sacrifice what have been valued local institutions in favor of Washington pork.

This really makes it tough to fund things like the hundreds of schools and county mental retardation programs across the region when we can’t even predict our own tax burden for more than a few months into the future. If Washington takes a bigger bite, there is less left locally. And locally is the only place where I can stand in a polling booth and have my say about funding for police and fire levies, and all the others.

Seniors on fixed incomes are even more conflicted, especially with a looming explosion in Medicare “gap” insurance premiums, higher prescription drug costs and reduced services.

Most of us can cope with almost anything if we know what’s coming. It’s the unknown and the uncertainty that can flummox and frighten even the strongest and most experienced among us.

None of this bodes well for our local institutions and those they serve who are depend on us to make the right choices.

None of this is their fault, whether it is the youngsters in school taking their turns to chase their dreams, or the most vulnerable of our sons and daughters who will live their entire lives in that nether world of disability completely dependent on the rest of us.

Since it is our money to start with, why in the world couldn’t we simply have been given the courtesy of a plain yes or no decision?

At least, in the movie, Durning actually made the decision to close the house of ill repute.