I've been taking Josh to work now for the past month or two--since the Audi went kaput! And, almost every morning (unless I am very hormonal and angry) we listen to KTLK on our way to Uptown. I hate politics, I hate thinking about it, and most of all I hate listening to it. Today on the Chris Baker's show, there was a very enlightening and frightening conversation. If this doesn't wake people up, I have NO IDEA what will.
MN state Senator Dick Day was on the show today and talked about how our (ahem) republican governor was "exploring" the idea regarding how to bring in more revenue for our illustrious state without raising income tax. Of course, the democratic state that MN is, we would want to follow the example of Oregon by legislating satellite devices into our cars so that we may be taxed on how many miles we drive. They not only want to legislate and monitor how much we drive, but they want to tell us where we can live (like we need to be within a certain mile radius from our work) and incrase property tax for the incompetent metro transit system (i.e. the $900 mil lightrail system that really doesn't help people that live in rural areas). So, bottom line? Goodbye freedom! Goodbye capitalism and hello socialism... and then some!
Is this not scary enough for you? Well, let's move on to Washington. So, the Congress is voting to tax 90% of the bonus the certain individuals received from AIG. I don't know enough about AIG to say if these people deserve the bonuses... that's not the point. The money they received is money that they were contracted for. That means that legally, AIG was obligated to pay out that debt using whatever money they had. The government had not put any stipulations as to how AIG was supposed to use the bailout money. Now, if the president signs this bill and it goes through, then the government is using taxes as a punishment. By what right does the US government have to punish those who are receiving payment for a contract that was negotiated? How far will our government go to own us? They keep raising taxes, they bailout companies that should be going bankrupt (so that those companies in turn can raise their prices and cut jobs), and they spend OUR tax money like there is no tomorrow! It is a vicious, never-ending-circle that will not stop... that cannot stop until the government steps out of the private sector and stops spending money on useless things (like infrastructures...i.e. the bridge to nowhere). The president is supposed to protect and uphold the constitution and if he signs this, it is a clear violation of the constitution and he should be impeached! Not that it will change much, but it would be a step in the right direction!
Okay. That's enough ranting. My blood was boiling this morning and I just had to get it out. :) Thank goodness I have other things to occupy my thoughts.
