I'll Vote, But ...
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Gary [email protected]
I have heard Mullen/Walorski, Donnelley/Mourdock, Gregg/Pence ads so many times I can – literally – recite them.
Unfortunately, to me, this election is about the lesser of evils. I can honestly say I am not thrilled about any of the candidates at the top of the ticket this election.
I suppose I will hold my nose and vote for Mitt Romney, simply because I think he has a better chance of turning around the economy than Barack Obama.
As for the rest of the races, I am officially undecided. I probably will remain undecided until I’m in the voting booth.
I guess I have kind of drifted over to the dark side with regard to national politics. I have pretty much given up on the notion of our country ever returning to the principles on which it was founded.
Constitutional republic my eye. We live in a corporate oligarchy. We get the best policy a lobbyist’s checkbook can buy. If you believe our lawmakers really care about what’s best for their constituents, you are fully delusional.
They don’t care about what their constituents want. They care about gathering up huge sums of cash in anticipation of the next election cycle.
Neither party is immune to the nonsense. Only the causes are different.
Some defense contractor makes big donations to Republicans. He gets the contract to build planes for the Air Force that the Air Force doesn’t even want or need. Some lawmaker gets to be a hero for saving jobs in his district by squandering tax dollars.
Some green energy company’s directors make big donations to Democrats. They get millions in stimulus money. Their companies go bankrupt. The directors shield themselves from liability and leave the taxpayers on the hook.
What’s the difference?
The notion of a citizen legislator – where a candidate is elected to do the bidding of his constituents – is long gone. Lawmakers are not beholden to their constituents. They say they are, but they aren’t. They’re beholden to their party leaders and their corporate benefactors.
Primary elections tend to eliminate moderates from the political process and we wind up with right- and left-wing ideologues in Washington.
One needs look no further than the policies we get to see the result of this type of governing.
Problem: Too much money in the political process.
Solution: Pass campaign finance reform laws.
Result: Record amounts of money flows into the political process.
Problem: Too many jobs are being outsourced.
Solution: Pass laws to discourage outsourcing of jobs.
Result: More jobs are outsourced.
Problem: Lagging behind other countries in education.
Solution: Pass laws to require certain levels of student achievement.
Result: U.S. students lag further behind.
Problem: Immigration.
Hmmm. Election year. Better not tackle that one.
Problem: Gun violence.
Hmmm. Election year. Better not tackle that one.
Problem: Deficits.
Hmmm. That’s a tough one. I know. Let’s kick the can down the road, stifle investment and economic growth and drive the country to the brink of financial collapse with a looming fiscal cliff.
Seriously folks, tell me the federal policy that you think is on the right trajectory.
Energy?
Health care?
Economy?
Employment?
Agriculture?
Environment?
Drugs?
Taxes?
Foreign policy?
Trade?
Infrastructure?
Medicare?
Medicaid?
Social Security?
Welfare?
That’s what I thought.[[In-content Ad]]And this is not specific to one party or another.
Bad policy has become endemic in our system of government.
Lawmakers care more about ideology, money and re-election than they do about sound policy.
It is borne out over and over with the policies that are enacted. So we wind up with ever-growing government that is less efficient and less effective, yet more costly to maintain.
The average American worked 107 days into 2012, from January 1 to April 17, to earn enough money to pay this year’s combined 29.2 percent federal, state, and local tax bill.
And that doesn’t include things like auto licensing fees, gas taxes and myriad other taxes and fees.
Despite that massive confiscation of private-sector wealth, government is broke and infrastructure is crumbling. Lawmakers keep making promises they can’t keep and spending money that doesn’t exist.
Government today runs annual deficits of well more than $1 trillion per year and borrows 40 cents for every dollar it spends.
Romney says he’ll balance the budget in eight to 10 years. And while he’s doing that, he’ll increase defense spending, not increase taxes and restore billions of dollars of Obamacare-related Medicare cuts.
He’s going to do this by program cuts and eliminating loopholes in the tax code.
Baloney.
That stuff simply can’t happen.
Obama claims more than $4 trillion in deficit savings over the next 10 years. Cool. But we’re running $1.1 trillion annual deficits. Beyond that, if you eliminate all the overbaked spending-cut claims and gimmicky accounting – like not counting the Medicare doc fix – it’s closer to $1 trillion. (Less than one year’s current deficit.)
Obama also is proposing a $1.9 trillion tax increase over the same time period by allowing expiration of Bush-era tax cuts on the wealthy. Nice try. He couldn’t get that passed if the Democrats ran both houses of Congress, and they don’t.
More baloney.
Yeah, I’ll vote.
And the abject madness will continue.
I have heard Mullen/Walorski, Donnelley/Mourdock, Gregg/Pence ads so many times I can – literally – recite them.
Unfortunately, to me, this election is about the lesser of evils. I can honestly say I am not thrilled about any of the candidates at the top of the ticket this election.
I suppose I will hold my nose and vote for Mitt Romney, simply because I think he has a better chance of turning around the economy than Barack Obama.
As for the rest of the races, I am officially undecided. I probably will remain undecided until I’m in the voting booth.
I guess I have kind of drifted over to the dark side with regard to national politics. I have pretty much given up on the notion of our country ever returning to the principles on which it was founded.
Constitutional republic my eye. We live in a corporate oligarchy. We get the best policy a lobbyist’s checkbook can buy. If you believe our lawmakers really care about what’s best for their constituents, you are fully delusional.
They don’t care about what their constituents want. They care about gathering up huge sums of cash in anticipation of the next election cycle.
Neither party is immune to the nonsense. Only the causes are different.
Some defense contractor makes big donations to Republicans. He gets the contract to build planes for the Air Force that the Air Force doesn’t even want or need. Some lawmaker gets to be a hero for saving jobs in his district by squandering tax dollars.
Some green energy company’s directors make big donations to Democrats. They get millions in stimulus money. Their companies go bankrupt. The directors shield themselves from liability and leave the taxpayers on the hook.
What’s the difference?
The notion of a citizen legislator – where a candidate is elected to do the bidding of his constituents – is long gone. Lawmakers are not beholden to their constituents. They say they are, but they aren’t. They’re beholden to their party leaders and their corporate benefactors.
Primary elections tend to eliminate moderates from the political process and we wind up with right- and left-wing ideologues in Washington.
One needs look no further than the policies we get to see the result of this type of governing.
Problem: Too much money in the political process.
Solution: Pass campaign finance reform laws.
Result: Record amounts of money flows into the political process.
Problem: Too many jobs are being outsourced.
Solution: Pass laws to discourage outsourcing of jobs.
Result: More jobs are outsourced.
Problem: Lagging behind other countries in education.
Solution: Pass laws to require certain levels of student achievement.
Result: U.S. students lag further behind.
Problem: Immigration.
Hmmm. Election year. Better not tackle that one.
Problem: Gun violence.
Hmmm. Election year. Better not tackle that one.
Problem: Deficits.
Hmmm. That’s a tough one. I know. Let’s kick the can down the road, stifle investment and economic growth and drive the country to the brink of financial collapse with a looming fiscal cliff.
Seriously folks, tell me the federal policy that you think is on the right trajectory.
Energy?
Health care?
Economy?
Employment?
Agriculture?
Environment?
Drugs?
Taxes?
Foreign policy?
Trade?
Infrastructure?
Medicare?
Medicaid?
Social Security?
Welfare?
That’s what I thought.[[In-content Ad]]And this is not specific to one party or another.
Bad policy has become endemic in our system of government.
Lawmakers care more about ideology, money and re-election than they do about sound policy.
It is borne out over and over with the policies that are enacted. So we wind up with ever-growing government that is less efficient and less effective, yet more costly to maintain.
The average American worked 107 days into 2012, from January 1 to April 17, to earn enough money to pay this year’s combined 29.2 percent federal, state, and local tax bill.
And that doesn’t include things like auto licensing fees, gas taxes and myriad other taxes and fees.
Despite that massive confiscation of private-sector wealth, government is broke and infrastructure is crumbling. Lawmakers keep making promises they can’t keep and spending money that doesn’t exist.
Government today runs annual deficits of well more than $1 trillion per year and borrows 40 cents for every dollar it spends.
Romney says he’ll balance the budget in eight to 10 years. And while he’s doing that, he’ll increase defense spending, not increase taxes and restore billions of dollars of Obamacare-related Medicare cuts.
He’s going to do this by program cuts and eliminating loopholes in the tax code.
Baloney.
That stuff simply can’t happen.
Obama claims more than $4 trillion in deficit savings over the next 10 years. Cool. But we’re running $1.1 trillion annual deficits. Beyond that, if you eliminate all the overbaked spending-cut claims and gimmicky accounting – like not counting the Medicare doc fix – it’s closer to $1 trillion. (Less than one year’s current deficit.)
Obama also is proposing a $1.9 trillion tax increase over the same time period by allowing expiration of Bush-era tax cuts on the wealthy. Nice try. He couldn’t get that passed if the Democrats ran both houses of Congress, and they don’t.
More baloney.
Yeah, I’ll vote.
And the abject madness will continue.
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