Scaredycrats

I watched C-Span because I was interested in how the tax cut vote would go.

When the Democrats were in power in both houses they got very little of their agenda passed because the Republicans mostly unanimously with the help of the Blue Dogs somehow blocked most of it. They even did everything they could to stall necessary judicial appointments.

I did not believe the tax cut bill that was presented to the president, that he compromised on, would create those jobs he was led to believe. To me it was a more expensive version of the failed trickle down theory.

The vote was illuminating. On the Pomeroy amendment which dealt with the estate tax, not one Republican voted for it - again treating the president and House Democrats like dogs who are asked to beg at the table and not given any food. Then when it came to the final vote almost as many Democrats voted for passage as Republicans.

Democrats previously voted to give senior citizens $250 to help defray their medical costs, but lost that battle. The Republicans explained that the government could not afford to put that burden on future generations.

HOGWASH!

I can only hope that I am wrong and that the president and the House Democrats who were humiliated turn out to be right, especially when I was led to believe that the House Democrats were really going to fight for a better bill.

Taxes and reality

A government must protect its citizenry with an Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard but going to war is not a must.

A government must protect its borders. It must have judicial, executive, and legislative bodies. It must pay for bridges, highways, tunnels and roads. It must pay for police, firemen, sanitation people and teachers. It must pay for museums, libraries and parks. And let's not forget unemployment checks, social security, medicare, medicaid and welfare.

Governments have a lot of bills to pay and they pay these bills with revenue from our taxes.

Once in a while they even overpay for goods and services, to take care of their supporters, so that they can get elected again.

In our down economy - much of which was caused by poor legislative, judicial and executive decisions - the government still must function.

If governments can't get this money from the middle class because of the outsourcing of jobs, and loss of manufacturing jobs and refuse to get the money from the wealthy, many of whom benefited financially from the outsourcing of jobs and relocating of manufacturing, they have two alternatives:

1. They can place new fees on goods and services, or raise the fees on current services. You will pay less in "taxes" but more for mass transit, tolls, tickets, parking meters, telephone and TV bills, and anything else you use.

2. They can decrease services. They can close unemployment offices, make medical coverage more difficult, close fire houses, lessen the police force, stop fixing roads, clean the streets less, let snow pile up, and do away with bus and train routes. In short, the government can make life more miserable for you.

So when you hear a politician proclaim my opponent and his party will raise your taxes, but I won't, consider it nonsense. The politician who won't raise your taxes will either raise the fees you pay or give you less service - or both.

One way or another, regardless of your political persuasion, you pay.

What is needed of the people who represent us is to have good judgment, integrity and statesmanship. Is that too much to hope for?

Monopolies

We seem to be worrying about the wrong things in our voting and politics. What we should be worrying about is monopolistic control of our Internet, our newspapers. our radio, our television, our telephone, our insurance companies, our hospitals, our banks and our credit card companies.

When a select few extremely large corporations control our services and our elected representatives, it does not matter whether you are a Republican, a Democrat, an Independent or have no party affiliation. Everyone is powerless when a select few have the power to raise your prices and give you less service.

When they are too big to fail, they are also too big to work for the common good.