资料题："And scarcely that" in the last paragraph means（　）。

We know that we have to pay for what we get.If we buy food, we have to pay for it.If a doctor treats us, we know there will be a bill to pay.These are private bills.But there are also public bills that must be paid.Public bills are paid for by the government.In return we get needed services.We all use these services without thinking how we get them.But such services cost money.We pay for these services through taxes.What would happen if everyone in a city stopped paying taxes? The water supply would stop.Water might even become unclean and impure.The streets might not be cleaned.There would be no police force to protect people and property.Schools would be closed.People would become sick and disease might spread.We would not want to live in such a city.We all want pure water, clean streets, and good schools.We want police to protect us from crime.These services are expensive.The bills get larger each year.We spend public money today for services that we did not have fifty years ago.For instance, we now use public money to help stop accidents in mines and shops and to help farmers.The chief duty of every government is to protect persons and property.More than three fourths of the money spent by our government is used for this purpose.The next largest amount of public money goes in teaching and training our citizens.Billions of dollars each year are spent on schools and libraries.Public money is used to pay the teachers and other public officials.Also,a large amount of public fund is spent on roads.The greatest part of the needed funds is raised by taxes.A tax is the money that we all mustpay to support the government.The law orders us to pay taxes.We have no choice in the matter.Almost everyone pay some tax in are from or another.Years ago, the government made money from the sale of public lands.But most of the bestpublic lands have now been sold.The money raised was used to help pay the costs of the government.There are still some public lands that contain oil, coal, gas, and other natural products.They could be sold.But we want to save them for future years.So, we all must pay our share for the services that make our lives comfortable.