The New Leviathan: Glenn interviews author David Horowitz UPDATED

June 25, 2012

Writer

UPDATE: Glenn also took time to talk to David Horowitz on GBTV Monday night:

Original Story:

On radio this morning, Glenn interviewed former Communist David Horowitz, a man who has now dedicated himself to exposing progressives, radicals, and extremists. And while Horowitz's latest book, The New Leviathan, contains some chilling information about how organized and funded the left has become, he said that he now sees that American conservatives are starting to wake up to the realities in front of them.

Transcript below:

GLENN: I will tell you that there are few heroes and lots of villains. There are few heroes in today's society. There are a few people that have stood and stood and stood for a very long time and tried to warn the American people, tried to warn the ruling class, if you will, that there's trouble coming, and knows it inside and out. And one of those heroes, in fact, a guy who I think has given us more time than maybe anybody else besides the Navy SEALs has been David Horowitz. David Horowitz has been standing guard for a long time. He was a Communist. He was raised by communists, he was part of the 1960s radical movement. When he started to see the slaughter after the Vietnam War, he woke up and said, what ‑‑ guys, we were wrong. They didn't care. And he realized it wasn't about the principles, it wasn't really about doing good. It was really about power and control. And he started to talk about that. And he was rejected by the left and the right and then the right would listen to him, if I'm not mistaken, David ‑‑ stop me at any time ‑‑ the right would listen to him when it was advantageous to him but still they really didn't get it. David Horowitz is a guy who, when I first started looking into the Tides Foundation and everything else, I found Discover the Networks, which is one of the best tools out there if you really want to know who's connected, how it's connected. It's really complex, very difficult to understand, but he's made more sense of it than anybody else. David Horowitz has a new book out called The New Leviathan: How the Leftwing Money Machine Shapes American Politics and Threatens America's Future. It is one of the most frightening books you will read because it's all true and all about how far behind anybody who loves freedom really is. David, welcome to the program. How are you, sir?

HOROWITZ: Thank you, Glenn. Actually I'm not as pessimistic as my book would lead people because ‑‑

GLENN: It's breathtaking.

HOROWITZ: I see a dramatic change in American political life and that is the awakening of the people. The awakening of conservatives. When I first, when I left the left 25 years ago, actually conservatives were quite kind to me, but they didn't really want to take in if the message. They were in a kind of denial because ‑‑ first of all because it was too horrible to contemplate that there were so many people that want to destroy this country. So many Americans, American citizens, Americans born, Americans privileged especially, privileged Americans who have a hatred in their heart for America.

And the second thing is that conservatives don't like politics. If you're a conservative, you're probably in the private sector, you're a creator. Politics is real ‑‑ is a lot about destruction. You're a creator. If you're running a business, you want every customer possible. So you don't want to get involved in divisive battles. And then kind of the attitudes change a little and I got support because they ‑‑ I mean, here was a guy who was willing to mix it up and get into the street fight and I ‑‑ you know, I don't take any credit for that. That's really all I know how to do. And that's the way I was brought up.

GLENN: But we haven't ‑‑ I mean, all of us, first of all, after communism fell, we all thought, oh, Communist, it's a joke, that's proven wrong, it's not working." So any hiding communists or anything like that, "Oh, please, it's ridiculous. Nobody really believes that." And we're all in that moment of, you know, after September 11th, all ‑‑ even the progressives standing there on the steps of the capitol holding hands and singing Kumbayah and everybody thought, we're all Americans. No, we're not.

HOROWITZ: No.

GLENN: No, we're not. And your book outlines the staggering, again, just the appendix just breathtaking. It is the number of groups and how much money they have on the left. Let me just start here. There are 14 liberal groups that have a billion dollars in assets.

HOROWITZ: More than.

GLENN: Yeah, more than a billion dollars in assets. 14. The conservatives have zero. There's nobody on the side of conservatives that have the juice and the power of these foundations.

HOROWITZ: Let's dramatize it. I mean, the Koch Brothers have a foundation. It's worth $239 million. Sounds like a lot of money. The Ford Foundation has $10 billion. It's 30, whatever that is, five times, 35 times the size of the Koch Brothers. And, of course, the Gates Foundation is three times the size of Ford. The leftwing foundations ‑‑ and they are the ones that they fund Occupy Wall Street, they fund the radical organizations that gave Obama his start, that trained him, that brought him up through the ranks. They have $104 billion in assets whereas the conservative foundations have only $10 billion total, 75 conservative foundations. But that's just the, I don't know, it's just the base of the iceberg because they then fund other tax‑exempt foundations, 501(c)(3)s.

For example, the Ford Foundation created the Environmental Resources Defense Council many years ago. And actually it created them to fight DDT just to do this very briefly. DDT, the Rockefeller foundation in the old days when it was the conservative foundation funded a global malaria eradication program using DDT. Along came the Ford Foundation and the Environmental Resources Defense Council which now, by the way, has $139 million in assets. It's grown to gigantic size. It started with this malaria campaign. They conducted a campaign against DDT using Rachel Carson's famous, or should be infamous book The Silent Spring which claimed that DDT would kill all the birds. Completely false, no scientific basis, but it's a classic of the environmental movement.

They persuaded even the Nixon administration to ban DDT and so malaria returned. And malaria kills three million people a year. It's killed since the ban on DDT100 million people probably. 95% of them are black children under the age of 5 in Africa. All this blood is on the heads and the hands of the ‑‑ without the Ford Foundation, this never would have happened.

GLENN: Ford Foundation, I was talking to a friend who actually knew Henry Ford and he said ‑‑ they were having lunch together one time and he said, "The worst thing I ever did was let go control of the foundation"

HOROWITZ: Yeah.

GLENN: Because it went off the rails. They always do that.

HOROWITZ: We print, in our book The New Leviathan, we print Henry Ford's resignation letter from the board which says in so many words that you are attacking the very system, the Ford Foundation is dedicated now the very system that created this wealth. And, you know, in his behalf, he had to save the Ford Motor Company which was in the hands of a gangster after his grandfather died in 1947 and that's why he let the president of Studebaker, who turned out to be a progressive, be president. And that's true of a lot of, well, most of the venerable American foundations.

GLENN: So how we ‑‑

HOROWITZ: Rockefeller is now a leftwing foundation. Carnegie, Hewlett, Packard, Kellogg, Casey, Joyce, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are funding the left. These are government‑backed institutions.

GLENN: When you have Soros join this ‑‑

HOROWITZ: And Soros.

GLENN: I mean, how do you possibly win, David?

HOROWITZ: Well ‑‑

GLENN: Because you ‑‑ wait. We haven't even talked about the universities. The universities are the think tanks now.

HOROWITZ: Of the left, right. Look. I had this experience. I was on a panel in Paris in 1986 organized by the committee for the free world and we had the Vietnamese there. It was an anniversary of the America's defeat in Vietnam. The French. And I was on a panel. And the topic of the panel was, is communism reversible. This is 1986. And nobody thought it was. I certainly didn't. And three years later it was gone. The fact of the matter is that America is ‑‑ first of all, it's not like European countries. We are an individualist country. We were founded by individualists. We had a frontier. So ‑‑ which created an incredible spirit of independence. If you didn't like the way things were here, you went west a little ways and you founded your own, and you did it on these principles. And these, the founders, it's not just the original founders but all along the way the founders of America were incredible people. You know I'm thinking ‑‑ you know the Mormons who went across the country and then came to Salt Lake and they said, "Hey, you know, let's ‑‑ let's build it here in the middle of nowhere."

GLENN: That's crazy, yeah. Yeah.

GLENN: You know. Or as I was saying to Glenn earlier, Dallas is a little, a little shack in the middle, log cabin actually in the middle of Dallas where some guy walked across the plains and you have to be to Texas to see how vast it is and said, "I'm going to stop here and this is where I'm going to raise ‑‑ you know, do whatever I did," and he was the founder of Dallas. That spirit is so antithetic to everything these collectivists want to do that I still think we have a fighting chance.

GLENN: Okay. We're going to take a quick break and when we come back, I want to talk to you a little bit about ‑‑ because the book lays out the path to presidency for Obama and how everything was just a network of these radical progressives. We'll get into that here in a second. The name of the book is The New Leviathan by David Horowitz and it's all ‑‑ it's the dirt on what ‑‑ on how this, how this machine that they've built really works. We'll come back to David here in just a second.

Our sponsor this half hour is LifeLock. A former sailor who posed as a SEAL chief to persuade other sailors to turn over their personal information was sentenced to seven‑plus years in prison for bilking a credit union out of nearly $182,000. He posed as a Navy SEAL, a SEAL chief and a chief petty officer to gain the trust of young sailors. He obtained their personal information and used it to get nearly 200 grand in car loans from the Navy Federal Credit Union. Identity thieves are shrewd. They're targeting your checking, your savings, they're after your cash, your retirement and they come in many shapes and sizes. LifeLock Ultimate, the new science in ID theft protection. They brought it here first. LifeLock Ultimate is the most comprehensive ID theft protection ever made and it goes way beyond guarding your identity, your good name or your credit. Those things are essential, but LifeLock is now the only ID theft protection that is monitoring your bank accounts for something called takeover fraud. They can't protect you if you're not a member. Visit LifeLock.com/Beck for details and then get a special 10% discount if you use my name. Call or use the promo code Beck and get that discount at 1‑800‑440‑4936. 1‑800‑440‑4936, or LifeLock.com/Beck.

(OUT 11:19)

GLENN: Chapter 12 in my new book cowards is young socialists, why kids think they hate capitalism. David has helped us with several of our ‑‑ several of our books and he is ‑‑ being a reformed Communist, he knows about radicals and revolutionaries and how they work. He has a new book out called the New Leviathan: How the Leftwing Money Machine Shapes American Politics and Threatens America's Future. And if you really want to know what you're up against, if you really want to see how all of this works, you want to see how screwed we are on the EPA, how much ‑‑ how much money the leftwing organizations have.

VOICE: The leftwing 501(c)(3) ‑‑ by the way, this book is really about the Shadow Party on steroids. George Soros is an important player here but when you see how many of them there are, you'll appreciate what we're up against. The environmental leftists, we divided environmental groups into pro free market and anti‑free market. The anti‑free market wants huge government controls. They think that corporations are the cause of everything from the mythic global warming to every other environmental problem we have. So they have built into them this anti‑capitalist, anti‑freedom agenda. The progressive environmental organizations have $9 1/2 billion in assets. That's bigger than the EPA budget which is 8.7 billion. And also dwarves the pro ‑‑ there are pro free market environmental organizations like the Competitive Enterprise Institute. There are 32 of those and they have $38 million. So that's the left ‑‑

GLENN: To give you some idea of how ‑‑

HOROWITZ: 249 times, times as big.

GLENN: We're not coming to ‑‑

HOROWITZ: But that's ‑‑ that's not the end of it because the left through the Democratic Party and through brainless Republicans gets itself funded by the government. What's the disparity there? They get annually $570 million to fund these anticapitalist, anticorporation environmental organizations, and the pro free market environmental organizations get 728,000. 570 million versus 728,000. You can do the math on that.

GLENN: We're bringing a ‑‑ we're not bringing a knife to a gunfight. We're bringing a toothpick.

HOROWITZ: A toothpick, exactly right.

GLENN: To a ‑‑ to a gunfight.

HOROWITZ: But I'm going to have to say this over and over. Look at Wisconsin. They had all their forces out in Wisconsin and they lost. And why did they lose? Because the people are waking up.

GLENN: They ‑‑

HOROWITZ: Glenn, I mean, you're the Clarion voice here in waking them up.

GLENN: I think people are just, I think people have sensed for a long time that something's not right. I think they started waking up in George W. Bush. I mean, Pat, you and I both have an awakening about the same time, don't you think?

PAT: Mmm‑hmmm. Mmm‑hmmm.

GLENN: It was just a couple of years after September 11th and we're like, something's not right. By 2004 we were pretty awake and I think we're ‑‑ I think we're still somewhat asleep, but we're waking up. And people are just, people are waking up all over the country.

HOROWITZ: I think you can date it from 9/11. 9/11 started the turn and then Obama has really, you know, it's like that when they go to hyperspeed. That Obama really said, people suddenly realized we could lose this country.

GLENN: How much is Obama really in charge of things? How much of this is Obama and how much is he the face?

HOROWITZ: I think if it were only Obama, it wouldn't be such a big problem. I think that Obama is pretty incompetent. I think that's pretty evident. He let Pelosi and Harry Reid run his ‑‑ and the unions. I think the ‑‑ one of the values in this book The New Leviathan is to give you a picture of how it works and how big it really is. And again with the unions. Look, all that Scott Walker had to do was to take away the, you know, the government collecting dues for the unions and give people the freedom to leave and half their members left. So this couldn't ‑‑ you know, this can turn pretty quickly if we have people who have the stomach and the spine to do the right thing.

GLENN: Did you see how Obama is now asking for donations?

HOROWITZ: From weddings? They're shameless.

GLENN: All of the money that they have.

HOROWITZ: Not enough.

GLENN: What are they doing? I guess it is, it's not enough.

HOROWITZ: Never enough.

GLENN: It's never enough. The name it book is The New Leviathan: How the Leftwing Money Machine Shapes American Politics and Threatens America's Future. You want to see what it really looks like, you want to see why I've had so many sleepless nights in the last couple of years. David lines it out unlike anything I've ever seen before. New Leviathan available in bookstores everywhere. Back in just a second.

5 videos that reveal the WOKE GARBAGE being taught to our kids

School today is not like it used to be...

Glenn recently covered how our medical schools have been taken over by gender-affirming, anti-racist, woke garbage, and unfortunately, it doesn't stop there. Education at all levels has been compromised by progressive ideology. From high-level university academics to grade school, American children are constantly being bombarded by the latest backward propaganda from the left. Luckily, in the age of Zoom classes and smartphones, it's harder for teachers to get away their agenda in secret. Here are five videos that show just how corrupt schools really are:

Woke teacher vandalizes pro-life display

Professor Shellyne Rodriguez, an art professor at Hunter College in New York, was caught on camera having a violent argument with a group of pro-life students who were tabling on campus. Rodriguez was later fired from her position after threatening a reporter from the New York Post, who was looking into this incident, with a machete.

Woke professor argues with student after he called police heroes

An unnamed professor from Cypress College was captured having a heated discussion with a student over Zoom. The professor verbally attacked the student, who had given a presentation on "cancel culture" and his support of law enforcement. The university later confirmed that the professor was put on leave after the incident.

Professor goes on Anti-Trump rant

Professor Olga Perez Stable Cox was filmed by a student going on an anti-Trump rant during her human-sexuality class at Orange Coast College. This rant included Professor Cox describing Trump's election as "an act of terrorism”. The student who filmed this outburst was suspended for an entire semester along with several other punishments, including a three-page apology essay to Professor Cox explaining his actions. Orange Coast College continues to defend Professor Cox, citing the student code of conduct.

Unhinged teacher caught on video going on left-wing political rant

Lehi High School teacher Leah Kinyon was filmed amid a wild, left-wing rant during a chemistry class. Kinyon made several politically charged remarks, which included encouraging students to get vaccinated and calling President Trump a "literal moron." Despite her claims that the school admins "don't give a crap" about her delusional ramblings, a statement from Lehi High School reveals that she "is no longer an employee of Alpine School District."

Far-left Berkeley law professor melts down when a Senator asks her if men can get pregnant

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Berkeley Law Professor Khiara M. Bridges was asked by Missouri Senator Josh Hawley to clarify earlier statements involving "people with a capacity for pregnancy." The senator's line of questioning is met with a long-winded, frantic rant accusing the senator of being transphobic. When Sen. Hawley tries to clarify further, Professor Bridges makes the outrageous claim that such a line of questioning somehow leads to trans suicides.

Woke ideology trumps medicine in America's top 5 medical schools

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

Progressive ideology has infected our most prestigious medical schools and is seeping into our medical system.

As Glenn covered in his latest TV special, "diversity, equity and inclusion" (DEI), and leftist rhetoric have overtaken science and medicine as the focus of medical schools across the nation. The next generation of doctors and nurses is being force-fed DEI and "anti-racist" nonsense at the expense of slipping standards. This has led to a decline in people's trust in the medical industry and for good reason. Woke ideology has already been the driving force behind at least one medical malpractice case, and more are undoubtedly on the way.

All of this is being spearheaded by universities, which have integrated DEI practices into the fabric of their programs. Our top medical schools now require students and staff to participate in mandatory DEI and "anti-racist" classes and training and are adjusting the standards to reflect this new shift in focus. Here are 5 statements from the top American medical schools that show that medicine is no longer their primary focus:

Harvard Medical School

Boston Globe / Contributor | Getty Images

Taken from the Harvard University "Unconscious bias" resource page:

“As members of HMS, we each have a responsibility to create an inclusive community that values all individuals. Barriers to inclusion may include assumptions we make about others that guide our interactions. Recognizing our Unconscious Bias is a critical step in developing a culture of equity and inclusion within HMS and in our partnerships with other communities.”

The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Rob Carr / Staff | Getty Images

Pulled from the JHM Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Health Equity blog:

“One-hour live, virtual unconscious bias training ... [w]ill be required at all Johns Hopkins Health System (JHHS) entities for managers and above; hospital nurse leaders; credentialed providers (such as physician assistants and nurse practitioners); and for school of medicine faculty and trainees (including residents, fellows, medical and graduate students, and research postdocs), as well as those at a manager level or above.”

Stanford University School of Medicine

Philip Pacheco / Stringer | Getty Images

Found on the Stanford Medicine Commission on Justice and Equity page:

“The Commission on Justice and Equity—composed of external and internal leaders, experts, and advocates—represents an institution-wide, collaborative effort to dismantle systemic racism and discrimination within our own community and beyond.”

Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Education Images / Contributor | Getty Images

Taken from the Penn Medicine Commitment to Inclusion, Equity, and Antiracism site:

“We openly acknowledge the role of structural forces of oppression as primary drivers of the disparate health outcomes. We believe that working to reverse the underrepresentation of historically excluded groups is critical in achieving equitable health outcomes. While this is an ongoing journey for our program, here are some of the tangible steps we have taken to achieve an inclusive culture”

Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

Jeenah Moon / Stringer | Getty Images

Pulled from the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity, Justice, and Anti-Racism page:

"Courses are being revised to be more inclusive and informed by the key principle of race as a social construct and a social determinant of health. We are training faculty that Anti-Racism is not an add-on to a course. Anti-Racism is a pedagogy - a manner of teaching, designing courses, and measuring learning outcomes. We make sure that the classroom environment is inclusive by holding space for respectful conversation and ensuring that we address any “classroom ruptures”– a disorienting dilemma or situation when a bias or microaggression that may occur, providing real time opportunities for professional development, learning, and growth. Racist actions and remarks are never tolerated at Columbia University and will be dealt with following established protocols."

Critical theory destroys truth and justice

Editor's note: This article was originally published on TheBlaze.com.

Critical theory once stood out as the absurd progressive notion that it is. Now, its maxims are becoming an integral part of ordinary political discourse. The more you repeat a lie, the more you will believe it, and this is the very dangerous place in which we find ourselves today.

Take this critical theory maxim as an example: If we desire justice, we must sometimes champion what may appear superficially as injustice. It's a necessary evil, if you will, the necessity of “controlled injustice.”

By using truth through fabrication and controlled injustice for justice, we’ll save the republic. We’ll be acting in a noble way.

This definition of justice is defined by the “oppressed,” not the “oppressor.” It is the greatest happiness for the greatest number. To achieve this justice, however, we need to endorse acts on occasion that, while seemingly unjust, serve a higher purpose. It will ensure the stability and the unity of our republic, and this may manifest in ways that seem contradictory to our values. But these are the necessary shadows to cast light on “true justice.”

And isn’t that what we are all after, anyway?

Here’s another critical theory maxim: Sometimes we find the truth through fabrication. Our pursuit of truth sometimes requires a strategic use of falsehoods. The truth is a construct that has been shaped and tailored to promote the well-being of the collective.

We sometimes need to accept and propagate lies designed by "the system” — not the old system, but the system that we’re now using to replace the old to get more justice through injustice and more truth through fabrication.

We’re engaging in a higher form of honesty. When we fabricate, it’s for the right reason. We are reaching up to the heavens fighting for a higher sort of honesty. To fortify the truth, we occasionally must weave a tapestry of lies. Each thread, essential for the greater picture, will ultimately define our understanding and ensure our unity under this infallible wisdom.

The election is coming up. Does this maxim sound familiar? Many think it is imperative that we secure our republic through election control to maintain our republic. Sometimes, we might need to take actions that by traditional standards might be questionable.

The act of securing elections requires cheating. It's not mere deception. It is a noble act of safeguarding our way of life. We're on the verge of losing this democracy, and without deception, we will lose it.

To ensure it doesn't fall into the hands of those we know will destroy it, we may have to make a few fabrications. We're fabricating stories to be able to control or secure the republic through our elections. By using truth through fabrication and controlled injustice for justice, we'll save the republic. Therefore, we'll be acting in a noble way. Stealing an election from those who wish to harm our society is truly an act of valor and an essential measure to protect our values and ensure the continuation of our just society.

If we desire justice, we must sometimes champion what may appear superficially as injustice.

I know it's a paradox of honor through dishonor. But in this context, by embracing the dishonor, we achieve the highest form of honor, ensuring the stability and the continuation of our great republic.

Let this be heard, far and wide, as a great call to patriotic action. As we advance, let each of us, citizens of this great and honorable republic, consider these principles. Not as abstract or paradoxical but as practical guides to daily life. Embrace the necessity of controlled injustice, the utility of lies, the duty to secure our electoral process, and the honor and apparent dishonor. These are not merely strategies for survival. They are prerequisites for our prosperity.

We all have to remember that justice is what our leaders define, that truth is what our party tells us. Our republic stands strong on the values of injustice for justice, honor through dishonor, and the fabrication of truths. To deviate from this path is to jeopardize the very fabric of our society. Strength through unity; unity through strength.

We've heard this nonsense for so long. But now, this nonsense is becoming an instituted reality, and we are entering perilous times. Don't be fooled by the narratives you will hear during the march to November. Never let someone convince you that the ends justify the means, that a little bit of injustice is needed to achieve a broader, collective vision of justice, that truth sometimes requires fabricated lies and narratives. If we do, justice will cease to be justice, truth will cease to be truth, and our republic will be lost.

Top 5 MOST EVIL taxes the government extorts from you

David McNew / Staff | Getty Images

"In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes." -Ben Franklin

The injustice of taxation has been a core issue for Americans since the very beginning of our country, and it's a problem we have yet to resolve. This belief was recently reignited in many Americans earlier this month on tax day when the numbers were crunched and it was discovered that the government was somehow owed even more hard-earned money. As Glenn recently discussed on his show, it's getting to be impossible for most Americans to afford to live comfortably, inflation is rising, and our politicians keep getting richer.

The taxpayer's burden is heavier than ever.

The government is not above some real low blows either. While taxes are a necessary evil, some taxes stretch the definition of "necessary" and emphasize the "evil." Here are the top five most despicable taxes that are designed to line the IRS coffers at your expense:

Income Tax

Joe Raedle / Staff | Getty Images

"It would be a hard government that should tax its people one-tenth part of their income." -Ben Franklin

On February 24th, 2024 we hit a very unfortunate milestone, the 101st anniversary of the 16th Amendment, which authorized federal income tax. Where does the government get the right to steal directly out of your paycheck?

Death Taxes

Dan Mullan / Staff | Getty Images

"Now my advice for those who die, Declare the pennies on your eyes" -George Harrison

Not even in death can you escape the cold pursuit of the tax collector. It's not good enough that you have to pay taxes on everything you buy and every penny you make your entire life. Now the feds want a nice slice, based on the entire value of your estate, that can be as much as 40 percent. Then the state government gets to stick their slimy fingers all over whatever remains before your family is left with the crumbs. It's practically grave-robbery.

Payroll

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

"The power to tax is the power to destroy." -John Marshall

What's that? The nice chunk of your paycheck the government nabs before you can even get it to the bank wasn't enough? What if the government taxed your employer just for paying you? In essence, you make less than what your agreed pay rate is and it costs your employer more! Absolutely abominable.

Social Security

VALERIE MACON / Contributor | Getty Images

"We don't have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven't taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much." -Ronald Reagan

Everyone knows the collapse of Social Security is imminent. It has limped along for years, only sustained by a torrent of tax dollars and the desperate actions of politicians. For decades, people have unwillingly forked over money into the system they will never see again.

FICA

Kevin Dietsch / Staff | Getty Images

"What at first was plunder assumed the softer name of revenue." -Thomas Paine

FICA is the payroll equivalent of Social Security. Your employer has to match however much you pay. It means it costs your employer even more to pay you—again, you'll NEVER see that money. At this point, are you even working for yourself, or are you just here to generate money for the government to frivolously throw away?