The federal government has been sapping your strength for years with little annoyances, none of which incite riots by themselves, but which eventually leave Americans fat, sick, toothless, depressed, dirty, and poor, with their souls too tired to fight back against the government.

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• The government makes you fat. The federal government makes it illegal to sell cheap sugar. High tariffs make foreign sugar expensive and price floors and guarantees to sugar producers make domestic sugar expensive. That's why there's no more sugar in sweets. Instead there is high-fructose corn syrup. And that causes obesity: "The inexpensive sweetener flooded the American food supply in the early 1980s, just about the time the nation's obesity rate started its unprecedented climb." And what happened in the early 1980s? The federal government relaunched the sugar price floor in 1981.
   
• The government makes you sick. The government wants you to spend money on medical costs, and lots of it. In fact, you have to be severely sick, for a long time, in order to deduct: according to the Internal Revenue Service, "You may deduct only the amount by which your total medical care expenses for the year exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income." The choice facing a sick American earning $40,000 is: stay at home for a month, heal yourself, then go back to work, earning $2,000 after taxes for the two-month period, or go to work sick, earn more than $6,500 before taxes, pay and deduct $3,000 worth of increased medical costs because your sickness has developed into something more serious, and still come home with $2,100 after taxes, plus all the "free" medical treatment. The government makes health an irrational choice.
   
• The government rots your teeth. Fluoride gets added to otherwise natural and pure drinking water and though such decisions are made at a local or state level, the Center for Disease Control, a division of the federal government's Department of Health and Human Services, has made grants to assist water fluoridation. Those grants are paid for with federal tax dollars. The negative health effects of fluoride, which is a cumulative poison that keeps on harming, are so many and so varied, you can just search for "fluoride" and see what the government is doing to you. There is controversy over how harmful fluoride is but if there is the slightest doubt, shouldn't we let individuals decide how much fluoride to add to their own water?
   
• The government makes you stressed and depressed. The burdensome taxes of the federal government basically require two incomes in a family just to make ends meet. If the federal income tax were removed, one of the parents could stay home with the children. Or each spouse could work less and spend more time on leisure activities and hobbies. Or they could vacation together. Instead, they stress out for the first few months of the year as their income does nothing more than pay for the federal government. Of all the states, Tax Freedom Day comes latest in Connecticut, on May 12.
   
• The government makes your toilets clogged, your hair flat, and your dishes dirty. The federal government down in Washington, D.C. has decided you are not allowed to use more than 1.6 gallons per flush in a regular toilet. Ever wonder why you have to flush several times? It's because the government won't let you buy the toilet you want. Read the federal law. Scroll down when you click the link till it says "Standards for Water Closets and Urinals." Browse around. The government isn't just watching you go to the bathroom, it peeps in on your showers too. That's why you can't get a good showerhead with pressure anymore. And that's not all. They regulate what kind of dishwasher you use, which is why the dishes come out dirty. They restrict you in what kind of oven you cook your food with, how you wash and dry your clothes, and what lightbulbs you use.
   
• The government makes you poor. Sheldon Richman of the Future of Freedom Foundation summarized five main ways the government keeps people poor, from taxation, to tariffs, to licensing requirements, to inflation, and more. Here is his summary: "Government is and has long been the enemy of low-income people. The next time you hear Republicans and Democrats shed tears for the downtrodden, remember that they refuse to give up the power that keeps those folks poor — and dependent on them."
   
• The government makes you stupid. Public education gets worse the more federal money gets thrown at it. It's obvious why. The more federal money there is, the more federal control there is, and the less parental control there is. And if you try to send your kids to a private school of your own choice, you will get no relief for the fact that you are supporting two school systems, unless you happen to be a politician living in Washington, DC. Then suddenly they think parents should be in control.