Donkey or Elephant - who cares, they are all jackasses!
Posted on October 23, 2007 in the Politics category
First let me start out by saying that I am completely biased and I have an agenda. I do not fancy myself a freelance journalist - I am just some schmuck with a computer that thinks someone wants to hear my conservative opinions. Actually that last statement is not completely true - I actually don’t really care if anyone wants to hear my opinions, I am going to give them to you anyways.
Every Presidential candidate is out there trying to buy your vote. This statement may not go over very well in conservative circles, after all, this is an accusation commonly hurled at Democrats, but it also fits the Republican framework as well. There are 2 primary ways in which both parties intend to buy your vote next year and they both involve your money!
But wait a minute Mathew - how can someone buy my vote with my own money? Isn’t that kinda like stealing?
Well, you said it, not me . . . here is a cursory look at how each party intends to accomplish this.
1) Democrats - Spending, spending, spending. I have always heard that the Democrat party was the party of big spending and the candidates in this election cycle seem to want to keep this moniker. I think all of the major Democrat candidates are proposing some sort of nationalized health care that will cost an absurd amount of money. What this translates into is a tax hike - someone has to pay for it, right? Perhaps I am a bit cynical but when was the last time you were the customer of some governmental service and thought to yourself, “Wow, what a great experience that was. How efficient and the quality was second to none!”
Let me answer that for you - NEVER! Now I want you to visualize this: apply government thinking and strategy to your next endoscopy or pap smear. Sounds like a service I would not wish on my worst enemy. I just cannot fathom how people can think that the government can take care of the so called health care crisis when the whatever crisis that exists was created by the government in the first place. Leave the solution to private enterprise!
Oh, don’t even get me started on Hillary Clinton’s proposal of giving every newborn baby $5000 . . . or is it $1000 now? Wait a minute - didn’t she change her mind again and now its a $1000 in your IRA? What voter block is she trying to hit anyways? I have never witnessed such an all out bribe for votes in my life (well, I admit, I’m not even 30 yet).
2) Republicans - I warned you at the beginning that I have a conservative bias and, as such I will likely sound less harsh on Republicans. If you don’t like it, too bad 
Historically, Republicans bill themselves as the party of smaller government and lower taxes, a credo I happen to agree with. Lets just hope that current Republican candidates do better at this than the Bush administrations largest entitlement / social program (read: vote buying) since Medicare was established in 1965. I am talking about the $400 billion Medicare Prescription Drug Modernization Act that he signed into law in December of 2003. Oh well, so much for reduced spending.
Current Republican candidates are promising (again) lower taxes and, in some cases, eliminating certain taxes. One of Mitt Romney’s recent TV ads has him saying that he will get rid of the “Death Tax.” The Death Tax (Estate Tax) was created in 1916 under the guise of funding World War I (or other national emergencies) while, in reality, it was just another step to penalize the rich for being successful and incite class envy. From now until 2008, the Death Tax rate is at 45% of the estate, over $2 million dollars. In other words, you are taxed at 45% after the first $2 million (example: $2.5 million estate will be taxed 45% on half a million). In 2009, that threshold will rise to $3.5 million and, because of a bill signed by Bush, there will be no Death Tax in 2010 but this is only temporary. Starting 2011, the threshold will plummet to $675,000 at a 55% rate. Ridiculous.
While it is nice to get some of my own money back, I have to be a little indignant at the arrogance on display. All this amounts to is buying your vote with money that we overpaid in taxes to begin with.
Yeah, I know I have been long-winded about this . . . I guess the idea I want to convey here is that you shouldn’t place a vote based on hot topics such as taxes. If people voted based on character and values, we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place.
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2 Responses to “Donkey or Elephant - who cares, they are all jackasses!”
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But didn’t voting on “character” and “values” get W. elected? And didn’t he get us into a war on what has we now know to be false pretenses? And didn’t he also increase the national debt more than the Democrat Bill Clinton?
I’d like to hear an honest “no” to any of those questions, but I don’t think there is one.
One could argue that voting on character and values got W. elected . . .and yes we are now in a war. But I think it is shortsighted to call him out on false pretenses without calling out a majority of Congress, National Intelligence (haha), and previous administrations. However, I do not subscribe “Bush lied” accusations. I also feel that there is something more behind this war - i.e. establishing a Democratic state to destabilize Iran.
I totally agree with you about national debt - after all I would be an idiot not to as it is an objective, published figure. Besides, I already noted the half a trillion dollars in expanded spending on Medicare alone.
Thanks for the comments!
-Mat