reducing government
Hunter, Be sure and try to tell your elected officials that you want spending curtailed on defense projects like weapons that the Pentagon does not want but that congress insists on building because the money goes to the defense contractors who make such large bribes, I mean campaign contributions. And while you are at it, mention the price supports that we pay to farmers who produce more milk and other crops than we can use so the govemnment pays to store them. I am sure most of us could get by on $500,000 a year without government subsidies, unlike some of the corporate farms that masquerade as family farms. Why do you think that almost every recipe you see in a magazine or newspaper has cheese added gratuitously? It's because the dairy producers are trying to get people to use up the damn dairy products. Farmers are against taxes, but are the first to squeal when a storm or drought or flood hits them. Then they want relief on top of their subsidies. Candy companies have moved out of the US because our sugar is so expensive because congress has a deal with the two Cubans who own the sugar plantations in Florida that pollute the Everglades. Our sugar prices are high for what is produced here and what little can be imported has to be sold at the same high prices or bought by the government and turned into another boondoggle, ethanol. Like the road signs read, "Your tax dollars at work."
Maplight.org is a new website that tracks political contributions and the way recipients of those contributions vote on issues involving matters of interest to contributors. This is the first time that the corruption will be available for all to see. It will be interesting to see how much and to whom the health insurance industry has paid for support. Likewise it will be interesting to see who yells loudest about homeland security yet refuses to do anything to wean us off petroleum, because they are on the payroll of big oil, while never acknowledging how much money our oil habit puts in the hands of our enemies in the middle east.
And, Hunter, while you are talking to them, you might want to suggest that until Republican officials can keep their pants zipped while away from the little lady, they might want to stop all of that morality bullcrap. Ensign's shenanigans are turning into quite the boquet of skunk cabbage with the latest subpoenas of the Republican Party and the revealing emails asking credit card companies for contributions to sway legislation. You might be pissed about the mess that is government. I am totally pissed off because I see, read and hear about more government crap each day than most of you do in a week. Mark Twain was right when he said that America has no distinct criminal class except congress. I would expand that to include a percentage of the other two branches of government as well, irrespective of party affiliation.