BUCKING THE SYSTEM: NO DEPOSIT, NO REETURN FOR WELFARE CHEATS

Tax season.

Those two words are enough to make any hard-working American citizen cringe in horror, even if she knows she's paid in her allotment for the year. Files and forms, receipts and ... math!

I'm sorry, I forgot myself for a moment.

In the best of seasons category, tornado, lotus and even the winter of my discontent top tax season. It doesn't matter if I don't owe anything -- I've still got to put out money on a stamp and send in proof that I don't owe.

You should know that "No Postage Necessary" is a very important phrase in my life.

One of the main reasons I hate tax season is because I usually owe more money, but there's a broader issue, too. It's because of an ever-increasing group of filers in this country who have the gall to look forward to tax season. They resemble those hard-working Americans I envy who get tax returns because they paid in more than they needed to, but there is a crucial difference: These people didn't pay anything -- or very little -- in the first place, and they've been getting back all year anyway.

You know who I'm talking about: They're the people who buy Grand Cherokees in April but get food stamps the rest of the year. They're the ones who pay less a month for rent than I do for a pair of size 12s at Payless, but have children in rags AND a big-screen TV.

They're the able-bodied Americans who are ruining welfare for all of the people who really need it.

I support the concept of welfare because there are so many people who need and deserve it. Many senior citizens have worked hard their entire lives but need assistance because of inadequate or nonexisting retirement or Social Security incomes.

I also believe that people with legitimate disabilities, whether mental or physical, deserve to receive government aid because they cannot earn their own living.

And there are many deserving children who shouldn't be penalized for being born without financial security. They need food, shelter and a healthy lifestyle so that they have the opportunity to improve the world in their turn.

But all too often the money that should be improving the food, health and shelter for children, the disabled and senior citizens is being spent on big cars and fancy clothes for people with 20-plus years before retirement who can work but have found an easier way that pays better. They may work, but they don't report that income to the government agencies who are assisting them.

They're stealing, and they brag about it at tax-time.

While I'm agonizing over the amount of daycare I've paid during the year and hoping I can just break even this year, the able-bodied Welfarites are running around buying stereos and talking about investing in CDs -- not the music kind, the bank kind.

There wasn't a lot wrong with welfare until somebody realized the welfare computers didn't talk to the IRS computers. Welfare fraud has hurt everybody, and the senior citizens and the children will be the ones hurt the most in the end.

The powers that be need to realize that the wrong people know the system is screwed up, and they're getting over like fat cats this tax season. It's not fair to the many people who deserve tax returns or government aid and aren't receiving them. We have to stop giving the undeserving a hefty windfall at the end of a year in which they've done nothing, and think of a way to keep helping the ones that really need us.

Welfare has been a good program that has helped many, but because of the few, it's ending. When I see people beat the system at tax-time and get even more because they've lied and cheated, I'm glad it's ending. But deep down I know that somebody's going to suffer because of that.

I just want to get back to the basics of welfare, when jobs AND income were provided, and the community benefited. If we did that, and got those computers in government agencies talking, maybe we'd again have a good system that helps more people than it harms.

What I want is quite simple, really -- no deposit, no return.

Tamara Zellars Buck is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.