An early rant

It feels a little more like winter, up here in Lassen County; 27℉ and falling at 5 in the morning. I haven’t checked the temperature inside, but I do have my jacket on over my pajamas. And I’m eagerly waiting for the coffee pot to stop its racket and deliver me a cup of coffee. Ah! Good…

OK, so I’m a pajama wearing blogger; what of it?

And what’s on my mind? I suppose it’s the constant haranguing by politicians of all stripes on the subject of taxes. One; I’m for taxes. I love them. I think that a fair and equitable tax system is the perfect solution for funding the government services we need and use. It’s the deciding of what is fair and equitable that makes it such a problem. That and the inefficiencies of a government that takes your tax dollar, and mine, and then spends it foolishly. ‘Oops! Sorry about that, but I’m afraid we need some more.’ That’s the thing that gets me upset about taxes. Not that we are taxed, but that our money is wasted.

Oh, sure…as if I could do any better. Well, I think I could. And I understand that what I see as waste, some might see as necessity. I think we can make allowances for that; find a middle ground and still find plenty of waste. For instance, the billions of dollars lost in Iraq. The billions that never quite make it to front-page headline status. Isn’t it strange that we can’t quite trace the responsibility for that money? It’s all very vague.

In the meantime, the politicians harp about tax cuts and tax increases as if they were the solution to our fiscal problems. Is it because the politicians already know that waste is a subject that no one in their ranks wants to address? That waste is built into the system and feeds the politically connected? It’s so much easier to divert the attention of the masses by accusing the ‘other side’ of raising taxes. There simply is no political will to change the system. Why?

Isn’t it odd that the only group that has a lower opinion rating in the polls than the president; the legislators, never seem worried about that fact? Why? And you want to belong to a political party? Don’t you feel a little bit, ‘dirty’?

OK. I feel better now. Nothing has changed but I have ranted a little bit and that’s always good. And I haven’t even looked at the headlines this morning! There may be more…