Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Political Nightmares

Attention politicians. Your games are getting old and tiresome. Why push for bi-partisanship if you refuse to listen? Why attempt to talk if your ears are closed?

Republicans, why automatically shoot down every idea without talking to the people who put you there? Your counter ideas for the most part are weak and unimaginative. You go with the "at least its not a democrats idea" ploy that has repeatedly failed.

Democrats, why assume your way is the only way and ignore all other ideas? Why the arrogance?

Mr. President, why are you so arrogant and refuse to see both sides? After 8 years of Mr Bush and his smug smile, it really doesn't sit well with most Americans to have another arrogant President.

Why can you two parties not sit down, look at the end goal, and discuss how to get there. Currently we have wall street financial reform, and immigration laws on the desk. Lets start with financial reform. Both parties agree that it is needed, so there is your common ground.

American people don't want any more bailouts that do not directly benefit the American people. Giving money to financial institutions did not help small business to not fail, or people to keep their homes, or any other resolution for the average American. It helped the banks and wall street only. So, listen to the people, no more bailouts.

There are so many over priced services and products right now, most Americans cannot afford to live, never mind invest or purchase. From the basics to the extravagent, there is problems in every corner.

Gas/Transportation: Why are we paying $3/gal again? Why do our vehicles not take advantage of technology to improve gas mileage? Ford is doing it with a V6 310 hp, 30mpg Mustang next year. The technology is there, car makers need to utilize it. And car prices, holy cow they are overpriced. How about we do to imports what they do to our cars? Tax the hell out of them so we buy American? How about we give car makers an incentive to build cars here? Give them tax breaks to build plants here and pay workers competitive salaries. Yes, tax breaks. You hire Americans, give them a good salary, and they will spend. Oh yes, they will spend.

Communications: Cell phone technology. Enough is enough. Cut out the contracts, cut out the overpriced services, put in incentives to recycle the old phones. They shouldn't be able to nickle and dime you to death.

Food: Remove the taxes on food. Country wide. Give farmers help and tax breaks, keep it American! Remove taxes on seeds, fertilizer and other farming related goods.

Taxes: While we are on the subject, taxes. Nobody, regardless of their income should be paying more then 15% taxes to the government. We work for it, the more money we have the more we spend. The more you take, the more we resent. In my opinion, here is how taxes should break out.

Food: No tax

Soft drinks, cigarettes, alcohol: 10% tax

Bottled water: No tax

Clothing: 5% Tax. This can then be split for the governments share, and for a fund to create incentives to keep business here.

Jewelry, electronics, pleasure goods: 8% tax. These are not required but are accessories.

Gas: 5% tax total. Required, but more people will drive and take vacations if gas isn't more expensive then the hotel.

Cars/Trucks/SUV's: Sliding tax bracket from 5% to 12% based on gas mileage and price. Cheaper more fuel efficient will be taxed at the lower end. This will hopefully eliminate single people from driving large vehicles that are a waste of space.

4 Wheelers, jet skis, motorcycles, recreational vehicles: 6% on these, but allow tax rebates for every time people use their recreational vehicle to participate in a clean up of trails/waterways.

So much more could be done and by no means are these numbers in stone. Just a general idea of how the tax structure needs to be re-worked in this country. We need to keep jobs here, and we need to be competitive.

In summary, financial reform is a broad sweeping job that should not be rushed and bull headed through like health care was. It will take careful analysis, thought, and work from both parties to make it successful. And please remember this. Any additional load you put on corporations, unless you close every single loophole, they will pass it on to us.