Media Matters & John McCain. May 21, 2008
Posted by baxtersbrother2 in Uncategorized.Tags: John McCain, Libertarian, Media Matters, NYTimes, Oregon
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The attached was sent to me by Media Matters. It comments about a NYTimes article.
The Title of the posting is :
Ignoring flip-flops, NY Times cited McCain’s “history” on immigration, relationship with “religious conservatives” as appealing to Oregonians’ “libertarian streak”
All I got to say is this: I know Libertarians, I work with Libertarians, Libertarians are friends of mine and there is no way in hell that John McCain is a Libertarian!
The Farm Bill, The Farm Bill, The Farm Bill. May 16, 2008
Posted by baxtersbrother2 in Fiscal, Just Ranting, Social Discourse, Tax Policy., US Government, Uncategorized.Tags: Farm Bill, Farmers, Farming, NYTimes, President Bush, Senate, US Congress
4 comments
Once every 5 years or so, there is a package from the US Congress that is commonly called “The Farm Bill.” Typically, the farm bill contains agricultural programs for the nations farmers and Food Stamp money for the nations hungry. As illustrated in the NYTimes, even though it is a bi-partisan bill, and almost veto-proof, President Bush should veto this bill. The present package is a $307 billion dollar package that is full of pork for very wealthy farmers who are benefiting from the Ethanol revolution and increases in Net income. In the fine details, there is tax breaks for racehouse breeders in Kentucky by Senator McConnell. They pay the farmers not to farm!! If they are farmers who do not farm, what are they?
Also:
- Continues to subsidize millionaires. Currently, all full-time farmers may be eligible for farm subsidies regardless of income (part-time farmers must earn less than $2.5 million annually). President Bush reasonably proposed limiting farm subsidies to those who earn less than $200,000 a year.
- It pays people to farm dirt or do not farm at all! Here is a article from The Washington Post.
- It goes to school nutrition programs which I think is great. However, many of the school programs are corporate run, and they are feeding the children garbage with sugar that is creating a bigger obesity crisis.
- Many of the farmers do not like the bill and believe that it is fraud. The Grand Island Independent reported the passage of the bill and how Senator Chuck Hagel voted against it. “We must reconnect our policy to its original purpose: providing a true safety net to real farmers when they need it most, while limiting government involvement in producers’ decisions,” Hagel said.
- Senator Chuck Hagel also said “It will continue to distort land valuations and inflate food prices, while jeopardizing our trade agreements,” he said. “We need a farm bill that significantly reforms our current policy. Agriculture is far too important to Nebraska and America for it to continue on such a misguided path.” As a person who has traveled thru Nebraska at 100 mph, I completely agree.
- Fewer than half of America’s farms benefit from our current farm policy and nearly 66 percent of farm payments go to only 10 percent of producers. It is unwise and wrong to continue these policies. The real farmers and taxpayers lose. The big guys win.
- The average food stamp receipts receives an average $1.10 per meal. That is it. At the local Safeway, you can barely buy a box of Mac and Cheese for that price.
Regardless of ones political philosophy, WE DESERVE BETTER!
Student Loans should not be a target for a government takeover! May 8, 2008
Posted by baxtersbrother2 in Accounting, Economy, Election 2008, Social Discourse, US Government.Tags: Government Regulation, NYTimes, Student Loans
2 comments
There is an editorial in The New York Times regarding the student loan issue. Student Loans are a huge issue, but a government takeover of the student loan industry is NOT the answer. The nation is investing in the future, not trying to get rich off of loans. There needs to be better education regarding what the borrower is agreeing to and money needs to be freely available to invest in the future. An educated workforce empowers the nation. The third party lender is one that handles the administrative functions of the loan. They loan the money, but it is guaranteed against default by the government! It would be in the lenders best interest to invest in the future because they will be hiring those individuals in the future as well as lending money to those individuals.
Dumb as we wanna be is just that—Dumb April 30, 2008
Posted by baxtersbrother2 in Economy, Election 2008, Fiscal, Resources, Social Discourse, The press, US Government.Tags: , Economy, Energy Policy, Friedman, Gas Taxes, Housing Crisis, NYTimes
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Thomas Friedman gets it completely wrong in his article Dumb as We Wanna Be, in Today’s NY Times. The NY Times Reporter, typical pandering to people and talking down to others, illustrates how he completely misunderstands the McCain and Clinton proposal to suspend the Federal Gas Tax of 18.4 cents per gallon. Obviously he is not concerned with making ends meet and pandering to the public. The average family of a husband, wife and children. Each Husband and Wife have a car that contains a 16 gallon tank, and fill up twice a week for the simple pleasure of going to work and activities with their children. Simple Math if you are filling up a 16 gallon tank twice a week for 2 cars, that is 64 gallons of gas that is consumed per week, or 256 gallons per month. 256 gallons multiplied by 18.4 cents per gallon is $48 per month. That may sound small to a highly paid columnist like Mr Friedman, but to the average American family, it may be the difference between being in and not being in default.
He illustrates that Government is fighting over renewables, which I support renewable forms of energy. However, he panders and talks that the leadership “refused to get all the adults together in a room and work out a compromise.” First of All, that is condescending, but this is an election year and few key pieces of legislation are typically completed. He illustrated that other nations are getting involved and making the investment, but their economy’s have not had the dramatic impact of the housing crisis. Then he ties it together & indicates that 100,000 new jobs would be created. Not necessarily true and sounds like campaign spin. Until you really know, and understand if our people have the skills necessary, can you make that assumption.
Needing to address the entitlement crisis March 28, 2008
Posted by baxtersbrother2 in Fiscal.Tags: Medicare, NYTimes
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The New York Times has a decent article regarding Medicare. We need to do something about entitlements and realize that we may not afford the items that have been in the past. Here is the article.
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