Despite my apparent inability to sleep the past couple of nights (now on only three hours sleep since 7:30 am Sunday), I have been able to get more things done at work than in past weeks. Who knows, maybe my work lately has been complete crap but so far I have not receive any complaints. I am really looking forward to the Montana trip in a week. That will be olive oil in a water bottle awesome.
Today's post covers a topic that is of special importance to me so here it goes. One of the things that I am most grateful of is being an American. Where else do you have the ability to argue several different points with others freely and without fear of punishment from the government and then go to work and try to screw your fellow man in the spirit of Capitalism? I mean, come on. This is just brilliance… much like the creature that makes absolutely no sense to me, the Duckbilled Platypus. It looks like a duck fucked a beaver and a manatee. Then their offspring mated with an otter and a snake (for the venomous part). What was evolution, or God, thinking? Come on. Nevertheless, I digress.
I would say that I am a little over the top in being patriotic and I believe that this word means something different than what most of my fellow republicans define it as. It is not being pro-war, pro-life, Christian, flag waving, or Mary Tyler Moore. Someone who is against the war in Iraq or war in general can still be just as patriotic as you or I (okay, maybe not me because few people are). Blindly following the leaders of this country and not saying anything against it because we are at war is not being patriotic. That is being an idiot. You should question your country's actions and the leaders we elect. I am a big Bush supporter yet he has done some f'd up things and I talk to people about them because we should. Of course, if you disagree but decide not to speak up, that's great too. That is your choice but to not question anything???? I am pro-war but most of my friends are not. I am a republican, most are not. I am a conservative, most are not. I am a white male, most are also. I am for the taking over of Canada because really, what good does Canada except mispronounce "O" and add nonsensical onomatopoeia's to the end of statements… and I doubt my friends would be for that as well. The point is, being patriotic means that you want better and greater things for the US. For me, I add the line that you also want the US athletes to kick butt at the Olympics.
Now, on to some other rumblings… Despite our inability to balance the budget (and this is not Dubya's fault people… the President has no official say in the final budget that gets passed by CONGRESS), we still dish out more foreign aid than any other country. We have two naval vessels that cost a fortune to operate and take up valuable human resources to man yet they are designed to provide medical assistance around the world. The USNS Mercy is the West Coast ship that is dispatched to the Tsunami area, Mynamar (even though their support was denied by the Junta), and other places. These are giant white colored floating hospitals with big red crosses all over it. Realistically, for the next few years (5-8 years) we should reduce all foreign aid to nothing, except for a contingency of 5-10 billion dollars in case of natural disasters or humanitarian crises.
This will hurt other countries that have not only come to rely on these funds but demand and expect to continue to receive it. How dare we even consider spending our own money elsewhere (mainly, on our debt and our own citizens that need help too). Despite this, we continue to shovel out money. By reducing this funding, and not increasing anyone's budget, sorry DOD, you can live with the funds you currently receive, while maintaining everyone's taxes at the current rates, should help to close the gap. To further close the gap, the government needs to close the loophole on big businesses that to this very day pay little or even nothing in taxes. That is wrong. This, of course, is a slow approach method to closing the gap and there are more courses out there that we can take.
3 comments:
Well put. It's incomprehensible to me that many big corporations pay only a paltry 5% in taxes (even though, on the books, the tax rate is much higher) and then have the gall to say that it's the corporate tax structure that's squeezing their profits.
I totally agree on the principle of cutting off foreign aid. But I don't think the problem is that we're giving it. The problem is that much of the aid goes through very bad governments (Zimbabwe and Myanmar to name just two). They skim off the top and the money never gets to the people that need it. We need to work around the government. We need to invest in businesses that are doing what amounts to foreign aid rather than relying on repressive regimes to oversee the money. If the money we gave actually went to help the people it was supposed to, they would have a better standard of living and could then buy products and services from us. We could then think of foreign aid as an investment instead of a giant money pit.
But the total amount of money that goes to foreign aid is paltry compared to DOD and DHS (to name two of the bigger money-suckers). The amount of money that is dropped into the war machine is staggering, amounting to nearly a trillion a year. And that's not including the actual wars being fought. That's only for weapons research, upkeep, training, satellites, spying, and other "defense" related items. That number also includes black book items that are top secret and require massive cash outlays because of the cutting edge technology employed. I'm in no way suggesting it's unimportant to fund the military and develop weapons. I'm just saying that cutting a few billion in social services or a few hundred million in earmarks really doesn't do any good. You're not targeting the real spenders.
On top of all that, we rely on foreign energy to drive the economy. If we would implement policies that encourage or require big business and the public alike to approach consumption in a much less energy-intensive manner, we could cut massive chunks out of the monthly oil deficits (possible solutions include meaningfully upping the CAFE standard, increasing electricity costs to drive reduced use, encouraging in-country production of goods like televisions that are currently energy-intensive to ship, etc). We're in the hole to the tune of hundreds of billions a year in oil purchases and that crap has to stop.
There are lots of ways to close the budget gap, but none of them are easy and all of them require us to consume less. Since it's not easy, I guess Congress would just as well not worry about it. To me it's simple- if you spend more than you bring in, you either have to increase what you bring in or decrease what goes out. It's economics 101. No one wants to hear the dread words "tax increase" so the only politically expedient option is to cut expenditures. But again, we're not cutting the big budget spenders and so really we're not meaningfully closing the budget gap.
Whether you're Republican, Democrat, Green, or any other party, you're never one thing. You can be conservative on some issues and liberal on others. You can be fiscally conservative and socially liberal. You can have good family values and go to church but still be a Democrat. And Republicans can be gay, pro-abortion, and push for tighter gun restrictions. That's the beauty of America and of people. They are never just one thing. What is lost in the argument is that everyone should approach things with an open mind and be willing to compromise. You may be the most conservative among your groups and may identify more often with the Republican platform, but you're also intelligent and willing to listen and admit when that platform doesn't reflect your particular viewpoint. And you're also willing to take a stand when you think the other side is wrong. And all of those qualities are good.
Too often, people become so enamored of an ideal (be it the ideal Republican or Democrat) that they are unwilling to listen to the other side and incorporate new evidence into their world view. As an example, there's nothing inherently wrong about being pro-war or anti-war. But the pro-war people have to admit that some of the arguments made by the anti-war crowd are justified, just as the anti-war crowd has to admit that some of the pro-war arguments are valid. Whether war was the best course in the long run is for history to sort out. But mistakes were made on both sides and both sides have to admit them. Both sides can't be right all the time.
In the end, what both sides want, Liberal and Conservative, is to see America prosper and be a world leader. How they go about that task is different and has different priorities, strengths, and weaknesses. But the ultimate goal is the same. Let's not lose sight of the goal because we're opposed to some of the details. And governance and leadership is about experimentation. If we try something and it doesn't work, admit the mistake and try something different. There's no shame in failure, only in the refusal to learn something from failure.
You better not be saying mean things about the platypus. Platypii are awesome!
To quote Brandon:
"That's the beauty of America and of people. They are never just one thing."
To quote you:
"It looks like a duck fucked a beaver and a manatee. Then their offspring mated with an otter and a snake (for the venomous part)."
So I conclude, what could be more American than the platypus?
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