Politicing

I just read a list of eight things voters "know" that are false. It's interesting because Paul and I were discussing this the other day and I think we hit on all eight of these things. Especially #5 which is about how tax cuts don't create jobs. And #8 about how taxes are actually good for the economy.

That one pisses me off the most. Sharron Angle is running all these ads about how evil Harry Reid is because he voted for tax increases during his long career, but that is exactly what I think politicians should be doing right now. The government is broke, which means the country is broke.Higher taxes means more jobs (in schools, hospitals, police departments, fire departments, city offices, etc.), it means more public works projects (thus even more jobs), it means health care could get fixed (which means I could go to a doctor and not have to pay a fortune, which means more money I can spend on retail and entertainment which means more money for business which means more jobs), it means a lot. I could probably come up with more examples, but you get my point.

It seems so obvious to me that when Bush came in and the GOP was in power and they kept pushing for smaller government and less taxes that what came out of that was a depression. Why do people keep insisting that small government and less taxes are better? I honestly have no idea. I theorize that it is the fault of history teachers. In public school they teach about the American Revolution, but what they end up doing is drilling it into the kids heads that we fought a war to stop paying taxes to the British. Which is sort of true, but its like saying that the only reason for the Civil War was slavery. Sure, it was the main cause, but there were a lot of other economic factors in play. It's just easier to tell kids "we didn't want to pay taxes, so we fought a war" and then move onto Lewis and Clark. But it wasn't that we didn't want to pay taxes, it was that we didn't want to live under a Monarchy, especially one that was across the ocean when being across the ocean meant something. Now-a-days the Queen could fly back and forth to "the colonies" every other day if she wanted to, but back then it wasn't like anyone important was coming over and seeing what was going on. We just wanted to be independent, and that was what we fought over. It wasn't like they thought they could start a whole new government and never have to pay taxes again. They just wanted more control over what those taxes would take care of.

I just get sick of this notion that taxes are inherently bad. That is the marching song of the GOP and the Tea Party and Democrats don't even really bother to try to dispel it at all. I mean, when was the last time you heard of a Democratic leader going on TV and saying "taxes are a good thing, we actually really need tax money in order to fix the economy"? I can't think of an example. Even Obama pussy-footed around the issue by constantly saying he was only going to raise taxes on 1% of the population. And then not even doing that. It's fucking stupid. Am I really the only person around that sort of wants to pay more taxes? I mean, there are a lot of things the government does that I don't particularly agree with, and I certainly would like them to stop spending so goddamn much on the military, but lets just fucking give them some more money so that they can get the country back on track. Its not like its charity, I would definitely benefit from living in a more fiscally sound society.

I'm not really sure how much the government takes in in taxes each year. Lets say its around 2.5 trillion dollars. So a 1% increase across the board would be 2.5 billion more dollars. A school district of around 50,000 students is going to cost about 800 million per year. So a one percent increase would fund a year worth of school for over 150,000 students. So lets say you paid 5,000 dollars in taxes last year, with a one percent increase that comes to 5,050 dollars. And 150,000 more students can go to school. Or a hospital can get built. Or they can fix the roads. Or something. And you may say "but I still am out another fifty dollars!" But if you have to pay taxes at the end of the year it means you are making more than you really need to live on, so what would that fifty have gone to? What is fifty dollars, really? Dinner for two at a casual dining establishment: $20, Two movie tickets: $20, a tub of popcorn at the movie and two sodas: $15. Thats already over fifty and thats assuming you didn't have wine/beer with dinner. So instead of taking the significant other out you stay home, eat a sandwich, watch Die Hard and pop your own popcorn one night out of your life and the economy gets a needed boost. Does that really sound so evil? When you put it that way does a slight increase in taxes really seem all that bad? How bad can anything be that gives you an excuse to watch Die Hard again?

I know it wouldn't fix everything, and there are a lot of things that need to be done, but I am just so fucking sick of this collective notion this nation has that taxes are always bad. I like having a government, damnit. I'd rather have to watch idiotic Senators screw over important legislation from time to time by slapping in some bullshit addendum at that last second then to live in a country with a government that doesn't have the ability to do anything because they never have any damn money.

I know I'm ranting, which is why this is on my blog and not something I researched to put on my website, but I just get so upset about this. Especially in the middle of an election season. Good lord I hate election season. Maybe the solution to the economy and the solution to not having to hear people bitch about taxes can be one in the same. Lets make every candidate have to match whatever they pay in ads during a campaign with a charitable donation of some sort. So not only would we get half the ads, but we'd also get a shit ton of money into social programs every time someone ran for something, which is pretty much constantly anymore. Thats actually an idea I've had for a long time. I think it could work. I knew who I was voting for in the upcoming Senate election long before the primaries were finished. I don't need to see attack ads on Sharron Angle or on Harry Reid every ten minutes. In fact, I was totally on board with voting for Reid until he started running so many attack ads. Now I don't want to vote for him at all not because of what the GOP is saying about him or his politics, but because of his fucking campaign. I probably will vote for him only because I feel quite confident that Angle is an idiot and would get absolutely nothing accomplished in the Senate, whereas Reid, though timid, gets a lot of shit accomplished.

I try not to pay attention to politics as much any more. But I can't help it. Fucking politicians piss me off and try as I might I can't stop caring that they are always going to piss me off.