The American Spectator

Reader Mail

McCain Migraine

1.16.08 @ 12:01AM

(Page 5 of 5)

Tens of millions of workers now don't pay income taxes and many get checks from the Government for simply not earning enough. Add Social Security and alike to all this and the number of people getting a check from the Government vs. the number of people actually paying into the pot is quite revealing. In economic terms this is all called Government spending. When did Government spending decline in the last thirty years, real government spending which includes unfunded long term mandates like Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid? Reagan's SS/Medicare fix raised my payroll taxes almost 25% which mirrors my income tax rate reduction. The system is still going broke. The last 7 years have seen even more long term unfunded debt added to these programs. These Social Programs are still growing out of control and will become the number one Federal and State expenditures not too far down the road. Is it Conservatives' purpose in life to continue to put a smiley face on Socialism or simply make it more "efficient"? This Karl Marx plan isn't going to go away and I would challenge any Conservative to illustrate how we are going to grow our way out of this that doesn't rob Peter to pay Paul?

Reagan's defense modernization was built up deficit spending just like all wars have been. He also had to bail out the S&Ls. We might see another such event if things keep going the way they are on Wall Street. What this nation built then for Defense is half gone now and can't be replaced at current spending levels. Government spending has continued to grow above revenue even as revenue has increased sharply over the last thirty years. Why? It takes more than a few Bridges to Nowhere to accomplish this feat.

If every able bodied person in this country paid what I pay in income taxes, the Federal Government would take in over 2 Trillion just in Federal Income taxes. The taxes passed on to every consumer in the form of corporate taxes (22% of every product) would flood the Treasury well beyond the current 2.8 Trillion Federal Budget level. The childless young couple down the street have newer cars then I do, have put more into their home than I can and pay 45% less income taxes. The retired childless couple down the street which still works pays over 70% less on the same dollar income. Half this nation's adults are unmarried and I still hear Conservatives say that families need a tax break. Really? Where in the Constitution does it say only married people pay taxes? I'm ready to marry one of my cats and adopt the other three to get on the same gravy train as my married friends. Some of them still have a twenty-thirty something child at home. When the Supreme Court mandates that homosexuals have the same marriage rights (aka as a 45% tax break) as non homosexuals you will understand my last point better.

I'm of the same mind as Rush Limbaugh and Ronald Reagan on this matter. You don't change the Government by becoming part of the problem. Government is the problem and Conservatives need to stop trying to make the beast a benevolent dictatorship. It will consume this nation and all that it stands for. If the root word in Conservatism is "to Conserve" that which has proven over time to work and fight against that which has not, there is a very long laundry list of undone tasks that Conservatives started in the '60s and are still untouched. If Conservatives don't see these age old problems, then perhaps many that call themselves Conservatives just don't want to be called a Liberal Democrat. Either way, Conservatism hasn't accomplished a meaningful thing in the last 30 years if it doesn't understand the root problem is always Government and always remains so. That's why the Founders went to such lengths to put checks and balances on this Democracy. They had 3500 years of failure at self government to guide them.

Nothing has really changed since Reagan entered the Presidency and left it. Many just don't want to accept reality and step up to the plate and take a swing at doing what has to be done, no matter how painful that may be.
-- Thom Bateman
Newport News, Virginia

OUT-AND-OUT HUCKABEE
Re: George Neumayr's Standing Athwart Huckabee, Yelling Stop:

I'm a little late in reading this article, and probably wouldn't have written in on it except, well, let's get real. My problem with Huckabee isn't that he's religious. And if any conservative would have a problem with Huckabee's open religion, it would be this agnostic. I'm not about to talk about religion, and I would rather it be out of the public sphere, but the fact that Huckabee is so open and honest about his is refreshing and one of his good qualities. His support of the fair tax is another.

No one can argue that Huckabee didn't do some good things in Arkansas. However, he did those good things through all the wrong practices. He taxed more, he spent more. His ideas on foreign policy remind me deeply of Jimmy Carter. The ethical scandals he's had level against him remind me even more deeply of Bill Clinton.

This man has stated that he would support a nation-wide smoking ban. Where ever you fall on the issue of smoking, you cannot deny that the use of the policing power of the federal government to enact a nation-wide public smoking ban is out-and-out fascism. He also wants to put the nation on a diet. These may be good-hearted things, but they're still all kinds of progressive and extremely liberal statements.

His statements on current American foreign policy do, as Thompson said on Thursday last, do sound suspiciously like the falls into the "blame America first" thinking.

Note, not a one of these things have a single thing to do with his open religiosity.

I don't like McCain or Romney for different reasons. Personally, I think Thompson is our best choice. And, oddly enough, for the exact same reasons that so many of the "chattering class" seem to dislike him so much.

But let's not get lost in the details here. Huckabee is a bad choice, and it has nothing to do with his religion, or free expression thereof. Come to that, if he showed some ethical consistency, had a good record, and was saying the right things outside of tax plans, he would have my support despite his religion.

The fact is, we're electing a President, not a preacher. His religion doesn't factor in, one way or another.
-- Charles Campbell
Austin, Texas

BIPARTISANSHIP IS FOR LOSERS
Re: Jeffrey Lord's Victory, Not Bipartisanship:

I just read the article by Jeffrey Lord, and wanted to say how refreshing it is to read something that so squarely hits the mark of what conservatism really stands for, truth. Principles and conviction, but truth is the driver. Understanding the real human desire to stand for something and be true to that basic human instinct. Exactly why I have never understood, nor accepted Beltway speak, such as bi-partisanship. Actually, I really have learned to understand Beltway linguistics, that is why bi-partisanship is a loser strategy.

I live in Tulsa, and am going to keep a close eye on the confab in Norman, where a real bi-partisan, David Boren, President of OU, will most certainly be prominent.
-- Tom Shupper
Tulsa, Oklahoma

Letter to the Editor

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Taxes, Foreign Policy, John McCain, Business, Federal Budget, Social Security, Medicaid, Religion, Islam, Abortion, Environment, Books, Constitution, Law, Supreme Court, Military, NATO, Socialism, Fascism, Conservatism, Immigration, Energy, Medicare