Veteran vs. Tax Collectors

Last weekend I had the pleasure of being a guest at the home of Bill Belser in Bristol, New Hampshire. The event was billed as a party, but the subject matter was anything but celebratory. Bill is about to lose his home because he fell behind on his property taxes, and this party was of the "last hurrah" variety. 

Whatever your opinion of taxes may be, I found this story to be very troubling in part because Bill is a veteran of the Vietnam war. Being a guy who pays attention to politics, I see the insanely irresponsible spending going on in Concord and Washington and I watch with a sense of helpless horror as my entire country is fleeced of its resources to be given to third world dictators, drug addicts, and illegal immigrants. Yet, a guy who put his life on the line for that same government is about to lose his home because that government wants money from him. 

This is a profoundly troubling state of affairs for our society. Our entire economic system is built to discourage anything resembling decency. If Bill had come to America illegally and lived off welfare, and never acquired any property he would not have this problem. In fact, he would have the entire Democrat Party cheering him on as the future of our country and demanding that money be taken from hard working people to provide him with everything he could ever possibly need.

Instead, Bill was born and raised in America. He put his life on the line to fight in a war that is today considered by many to have been one of our greatest foreign policy mistakes. He married, he fathered 10 children who gave him 13 grandchildren, he bought a home, and was even a Deacon to his church. The people in his neighborhood all call him "Dad" and though his means are quite limited (about a $1,000/month) he has been generous to a fault with his family and community. 

After Bill's wife died in 2009 he took out a reverse mortgage on his home to cover expenses. One requirement of this transaction was that he stay up to date on his property taxes, and understandably so since the home was collateral on a loan. If the State takes the home, the mortgage company is going to have a rather difficult time collecting. When Bill fell behind on his taxes, the mortgage company paid them to secure their collateral. But now the amount in dispute exceeds $18,000 and his mortgage is in foreclosure. Bill and his family have struggled to keep up with their demands, but finality has arrived and law enforcement will be at the home on October 26th to evict them from the property if they cannot pay the past due balance before then.

Bill has nowhere else to go. This eviction will leave a disabled veteran homeless in the New Hampshire winter. Bill's daughter and her three autistic children also live in the home, and will find themselves in the same position. All because the government wants more money to waste on people who have sacrificed nothing for this country.  

I've launched this GoFundMe campaign to try and help Bill stay in his home. If we cannot raise the full amount necessary for that, whatever money is raised will be used to help ease his transition to a new residence. But perhaps more importantly than that, I hope whoever reads this will think long and hard about the priorities of our country and our government. When a government steals from its veterans to pay its invaders, a profound and catastrophic betrayal has occurred.

None of us should feel safe living under such a treacherous boot.