Average Joe sez: Here is the definitions of what Obama and the states are doing to U.S. taxpayers at present.

Extortion: to obtain from a person by force, intimidation, or undue or illegal power.

Hostage: one that is involuntarily controlled by an outside influence.

Taxpaying middle-class people have paid the lions share of taxes for years. We, which includes me, feel entitled to still get some return on our money for all the years of paying in.

Hmmm, some of the next cuts proposed are-the jails?! Now, who will pay the consequences for early releases or no confinement at all? Likely the taxpayer will- in increased crimes against them! Yeah, let's cut more criminals loose on the unsuspecting public...

Or we the Public servants could tell the taxpaying public to pay up and then some more and maybe then we, the illustrious public servants, will reconsider...

Extortion. And we are being held hostage.

PS

Open Letter To Our Public Servants:

Respectfully, I wish to remind you that we taxpayers are your employers.

You work for us, not the other way around.

Your employers (meaning us taxpayers) are taking the $ hits. What happens when your employers (meaning us taxpayers) have no more money to make payroll? The fastest-growing work segment is government jobs, and the largest financial hits are in the private sector.

The private sector is who pays your governmental salaries. See the problem here?
 
Sincerely, one of your bosses.

Joe